Hello all!
I just wanted to post here today and talk about my latest work in progress: The Halls of Maney Manor.
It is a grid-based horror game (yeah, I'm a little late for Halloween) where the protagonist is trying to 1) open all available chests, 2) disrupt the spirit of Edna Maney from completing the ritual, and 3) evade Edna's ghostly presence long enough to complete these goals. It's a spooky haunted house survival game with hiding spots, stealth mechanics, and objectives to open.
Why grid-based you ask? Well, let me start off by giving a huge huge shoutout to SolarB and his work on the "Tower Defense Kit" here: Please login to see this link.. His pathfinding example was one that I completely gutted and used for the pathfinding in this game. Without his work, I definitely wouldn't have anything to show at this point. So why grid-based? I started out by trying to make a digital adaptation of a board game I've been working on since the early COVID days. I had the die rolling/turn-taking system down but then decided that this project might be a little more interesting if the action was a bit more lively. So, the Halls of Maney Manor: Digital Version became the Halls of Maney Manor: Chase (working title, of course). The grid-based movement system is still working for me, so I've left it in place.
I have a backstory to the game but I won't bore you with that for now. The player has entered the haunted Maney Manor and must successfully open X amount of chests to achieve [goal] before the spirit of Edna Maney can either catch her or complete the ritual. The red bar in the video below is the stamina meter. You can sprint pretty quickly while the bar is full, but when it bottoms out your steps become labored and you move a bit slower, so it's important to conserve your energy. The blue bar is the sound meter. Every step you take, as well as unlocking the chests, increases the meter. When the sound meter becomes high enough, the spirit of Edna Maney hears you, and engagement mode ensues. Engagement mode will trigger if she sees you, as well. The only way to end the engagement (besides being caught and dying) is to stay away from her long enough for the sound meter to reach 0 again. This can be done by being far enough away from her or by hiding in one of the dark, shadowy locations in the house.
Edna Maney wanders the house. Though she is invisible to the player while not in eyeshot, there are a few ways of telling if she is near you. First, there is a white fuzzy border the will become more visible the closer she is to you and appear in which direction she is. Second, there is a large static-like area around the spirit so that you can have a general idea of where she is wandering when nearby. Last, Edna makes the candles in the halls and rooms flicker when she passes close by.
Evading isn't everything, though. After a long enough time of not being in engagement mode, Edna Maney will start her ritual. If this ritual is complete, you lose the game, as it's essentially the same as being caught. She will not perform the ritual while chasing you, however, so it is important to aggro her once in a while and maintain a good balance between being chased and being stealthy.
That being said, I hope you guys enjoy what I have so far. The player/ghost/UI etc are hideous as they're still the prototype graphics I'd been using since back when this was a board game. Also, I'm still working on the door system, so you can see the doors being rather unsightly sitting there, but there is a plan for them. Basically, I know the ugly stuff is ugly and I'm still working on it! The blue and red squares in the house are essentially portals. They'll eventually be hidden passageways behind bookshelves or something like that. Ways to travel to other parts of the house.
Thanks for reading.
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