Hello itch.io friends!
THE STORY SO FAR:
My name is Grant and I make games under my label Honeycomb Interactive. On top of that stuff, I work full time in game development (no I do not sleep much)! I tend to work on a bunch of stuff at once "Lazy Susan" style, but my main side project is PRISON OF THE MAGI. "PotM" is an open world horror game about exploration, survival, science, witchcraft, and cosmic forces. The scope of the game is basically a one man immersive sim in a bottle with combat, loot, puzzles and abilities clocking in at 2-3 hours. I believe the truly great horror games are short and sweet!
The initial premise for the game came to me in October 2019 and I began concept art and storyboards immediately, then came some initial game and level designs. At the time I was working on the Unreal Engine in a QA role. Shortly after leaving Epic, I released a standalone 20 minute prologue game called Prison of the Magi: Chapter Zero. It was mostly a linear experiment in the art style, level design and narrative I was aiming for, but the gameplay was limited.
Flash forward to 2021, and I've continued development with new tech under the hood of the full length game. Last Fall I designed the "Gloaming Isles" as the world for the player to explore, a spiraling archipelago. I also fleshed out a narrative that spans 2 centuries, about an eternal island on another plane of existence that alchemists and sorcerers from Ancient Egypt to Cold War Russia have tried to find. A great power lurks there, and the player will slowly discover it's secrets and whose footsteps they walk in.
I released my first Prison of the Mag demo with alpha content of the first 10-15 minutes earlier this Spring, and an updated build released today with improved graphics and gameplay!
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 2021/2022:
The game is now at the point in development where all the pieces are in place and all the core design elements are in place, and am now adding depth and more gameplay loops. What's left to do includes:
-Enemy AI
-Continued level design and expansion of playable area
-Environment Puzzles
-Combat
-More horror events
-More Loot and Artifacts
-Economy System
-Upgrades and Ability System
-Narrative (Notes, Voice Acting, Dialogue Trees)
-Sound Design (custom folly)
-Performance Improvements
I'd love to hear feedback on the game demo and prologue if you have the time, and I hope you like it!
Here's the first draft of a trailer I made for the new demo this past week:
