The Key Below Devlog

Well, here it is! This is my New Mexico 2019 Game Jam game titled The Key Below.

Now I have to admit, this was initially an excuse to build an expandable, modular, hex-based map drawer and movement/combat system. In fact, I was probably going to build a hex-based system no matter what the theme was going to be. Luckily, I think the theme worked really well with my initial hex-grid ideas, and I feel I was able to make something that is actually a bit fun. 

I tried not to go overboard with what I expected to get done this weekend. I wanted to complete a game with a beginning, middle, and end instead of being caught with lots of half-finished features. This resulted in me making the game essentially just one big level, with simple combat and the focus on movement and exploration.  

Design

I got to working on it right away without much thought to the gameplay itself. I knew I wanted a hexagonal tile-based map with randomized terrain types, so that's what I started working on.  After creating a rudimentary hex-tile grid drawer, I didn't have much of a plan for what was to come next. I knew that I wanted a character you could move around the map, so I added that. Next, I tried to shoe-horn in the digging part. It wasn't very fun at first because there was no incentive to dig at one place instead of another, and finding treasure wasn't very satisfying since items or gold had no purpose with no other systems in place. I kept the digging in, knowing that it would come into play later, but shifted focus towards adding in some rudimentary combat and the survival elements.

Initially, moving between tiles always cost 1 ration, and hunting and fishing would give you a random amount of rations. You could hunt anywhere and could fish at any tile adjacent to water. This was still pretty boring, as there was no reason to take one route instead of another, and it became very tedious to press the hunt button after every single movement.  That's when I got to thinking about having randomized tile "heights", so that the movement itself would become more of a puzzle and "best routes" would naturally form. I also made it so you could only hunt at special tiles to reduce the tedium, and added other special tiles as well for variety's sake. By Saturday afternoon, I had a pretty good idea of what the game was going to be. 

I originally hoped for multiple levels with different art and themes, more unique monsters, and a more complex grid-based combat system, but by late Saturday night I  decided to simply lower the scope of the project so that completing it would be more plausible. Items were handled by simply having the player find "upgrades" to their attack and armor statistics, combat remained a simple back-and-fourth. and I decided to focus on making the clue system so that the "digging" aspect was a little more front-and-center.  I was glad I made these compromises, as It was already becoming a struggle to stay focused, especially by Sunday afternoon when lack of restful sleep was starting to take its toll.

Features:

• A completely randomized map drawer.  The grid size and frequency of specific tiles are all very customizable on my end. 
• Random events, random items that affect attack and armor values, healing fountains, and more!
• A movement system that has puzzle-like aspects.
• Hunting, fishing, and digging! With random results but also with special tiles with pre-determined results.
• A clue system that I think is fun and helpful.
• Simple survival mechanics that, when combined with the movement system and randomization, require some strategy to overcome.

Summary

Overall, I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish during the game jam weekend. This was my first time doing a game jam alone and I completed what is essentially a game with a beginning, middle, and end, but with lots of room for expansion. I plan to continue working on it, beginning with some bug fixes, and then moving on to implementing some of the features I had originally hoped for, like having more monsters, item shops,  levels of increasing difficulty and varying themes, better art, etc. I'm even considering bringing it to 3D,  which I think would work well considering it is a tile based game where tile height is such an important factor. Be on the lookout for updates in the near future!