Introduction
This thread will be used to report on the development progress for Shift: Prelude. Shift will allow players to uncover a story of loss and redemption in a hack-and-slash RPG where the dungeon -- not the hero -- experiences permadeath.
In Shift, the player takes on the role of a "Shifter" -- a sort-of mercenary that travels through inter-planar portals to complete tasks at the behest of powerful wizards. A shifter rarely understands the motives of their patron, but since they get to keep any treasure the wizard wasn't looking for this line of work is quite lucrative.
The Prelude adventure will tell the story of a grieving man's struggle to recover from a great loss, and will use a combination of techniques to convey this story as the adventure unfolds.
I am just creating this thread now, but have been working on the project since the start date of the Challenge. Since I have completed my first iteration, an update with the progress made during the first week will be added shortly.
Gameplay
Shift borrows the visual styling and random elements from classic Rogue-like games, but is tailored to people who do not enjoy character permadeath. Instead, when a character dies or runs out of turns they are pulled back to their home world, and the contents of that dungeon is forever lost to them. The narrative impact of failed objectives, and lost opportunity to capture the unique treasures of that dungeon, hopefully make this loss impactful enough to create tension.
Key influences on the design of Shift are:
- Rogue-like games: Procedural dungeon generation, ASCII-based graphics, and limited turns to complete a dungeon
- RPG Elements: The player gains power as they adventure, and meaning choices about how to advance can be made
Specific innovations for the 'Prelude' version of Shift planned for November:
- World permadeath: as described above
- Story: A month is not long enough for me to make an adventure game with deep enough content to engage a player for the long time typical of the rogue-like genre. Knowing this, I intend to create narrative elements and give the game a definite "beginning, middle, and end." It is my hope that the gameplay will be engaging enough for a player to complete the story and have a satisfying experience. Replayability of random levels after the story will be possible, of course, for those interested
Schedule
For this challenge, I intend to work on the project for as many hours as I can between when my infant child goes to sleep and 2am. This end time is fairly typical of my sleep schedule, and allows me to wake up refreshed when I need to for work each day. The absolute most this would be is ~6 hours a day (42 hours per week). However, it is likely that I will have other tasks, spend some nights doing things with my wife, and go to bed earlier some days. In practice it will be closer to ~4 hours a day (28 hours per week). I will plan each week's iteration assuming 28 hours of time, but allow myself up to 42 if I can do so comfortably.
Main Goals
Ideally, Shift will:
- Provide a satisfying "levelling and looting" experience to fans of the genre.
- Tell a meaningful story through a combination of subtle clues, frequent text descriptions, and occasional vignettes that reveal major plot points.
- Create reusable system components that can be incorporated into future projects, including: procedural map generation engine, combat system, monster AI and variations, item and equipment system, etc.
Non Goals
The following items have been considered, but are out of scope for this challenge:
- Open world exploration
- City building, farming, etc.
- Magic system for spellcasting
- Card-based combat / "tactics" system (still reflected in design document that needs updating)
