10/22/2023

I'm not going to be done in time...

I have made pretty good progress architecture and design-wise. We have camera movement, stat and resource tracking and we are working on enemy AI.

The issue is I do not have enough time. I know, I know, that's game jams. I know if I did a top-down or platforming game while learning GDevelop it would have been simpler. But does the jam really need another game like that? No aspersions on anyone making a game like that, but I did not want to contribute to the noise. You all are on your own journey and tbh, I look forward to playing whatever you make. 

My issue is that I really likely need to dive deep into GDevelop to get the (relatively basic) turn-based behaviors I am looking for and between work and life stuff I do not have the time...

So as I continue to work on this game and accepting that I will not be able to submit anything worthwhile to the jam, I will dump my raw notes for the jam here and in the next post I will go into the design and why I went this direction (and hopefully will continue to).

****Raw markdown of my brainstorming and design notes start here****

Turn based survival horror

Set in some war

Dark Psychadelic lofi aesthetic

Player wakes up to screams and some symbol carved into their flesh. All of their companions are gone.

Must investigate the surrounding area

eventually get captured and to escape, they must retrive some relic and perform a ritual

Uncover an unholy church of cannibals that have been feasting on the body of a fallen celestial creature

Something evil stalks the player through the forest and caves

#### Gameplay

Hitman GO / Dark souls board game style node-based levels

Have to keep moving or else the creature stalking them will enter the board 

Must gather weapons, ammo, other supplies to defend themselves or help them hide

Must gather key items to progress

Line of sight / light sources play a role here

Noise will play a role

Player will encounter creatures both natural and unnatural, the cult, and the beast they have summoned

Stealth mechanics as well as risk / reward combat (using ammo and causing noise vs using melee but getting hurt)

Player attributes are 

- vitality - overall health 

- Can take a mortal wound which can cause bleed or take extra damage pips. Healing this takes 1 turn wind up

- fear - mental strain

- drain - physical exertion

- recharges 1 per level (or with items)

- used to make an additional action on a turn at the cost of 1 per action

Every model action has a speed of instant or takes a turn to wind up

On their turn every model can move and take an action. Some actions are free or take both move and action to perform.

all actions produce noise in a radius

noise and sight will alert enemies

light is used to increase line of sight

Sneaking reduces noise and light emitted, making you harde rto detect, but also reduces your line of sight.

#### Levels

- **Camp** 

- Intro to mechanics

- movement /  items

- healing

- Brief exposition

- **Forest I**

- Intro to mechanics

- combat

- a cougar (something is strange about them :eyes:)

- use gun to kill

- **Rotting Well**

- Intro to mechanics 

- Melee risk reward: get a melee weapon at start

- Pushing / environment kills

- **Forest II**

- Intro to mechanics 

- stealth 

-  number of cult members (variety of types?)

- Introduces hiding, avoiding line of sight, and stealth kills

- These are the guys that kidnapped your companions. They were coming back for you. You must stop them!

- **Ruined Cabin**

- Intro to mechanics

- Introduce a couple of utility items for distraction / aoe

- This includes creating fire

- This includes status effects?

- Introduce enemies killing each other (new type of stationary enemy that will shoot on sight after 1 turn)

- **Bloodsoaked Cellar (tunnel chase setpiece)**

- Mechanics Reinforced

- Key items

- Intro to mechanics 

- Fear (active from the start but laid out explicitly here)

- Key items needed to access certain areas (some obstacles can be destroyed)

- The gross flesh creature appears. Player tries to fight but is captured

- This is not a scripted death. If the player defeats the creature, they get access to magic early and skip Decrepit Pit

- **Decrepit Pit**

- Escape captivity

- Intro to Mechanics 

- Monster follow mechanic

- Mechanics Reinforced

- Stealth

- Key items

- **Abandoned Mines** I

- Discover what the cult is up to

- Obtain materials for the first ritual

- Mechanics Reinforced

-  Timing of actions

- Stealth

- distraction items

- Melee vs going loud

- **Subterranean Chamber**

- Make your way to the church

- Mechanics Reinforced 

- Pushing kills

- aoe items / environmental hazards

- Fear

- **Blasphemed Church**

- Obtain the artifact

- Discover what became of your companions

- Mechanics Introduced

- Magic

- **Haunted battlefield**

- Make your way to the first ritual site

- Introduce new enemy type

- **Tilled Graves**

- Perform the first ritual

- Introduce ritual pseudo mechanic

- Unlock a new spell

- **Ransacked Mercantile**

- Obtain materials for the second ritual

- **Despoiled Farm**

- Perform the second ritual (less resistance. Just a skill check / resource drain)

- Unlock end game spell

- **Flayed Angel**

- Attempt to perform the final ritual

- Cult is also trying to perform their own ritual

### Enemy behavior

- Infantry 

- Has weak ranged throwables or attack

- Player in line of sight or just made noise:

-  If can move closer to player, do so

- If can make a melee attack, do so

- If can make a ranged attack, do so

- Not 

- Follow above rules but for last known player location 

- Low damage

- Cavalry

- Only melee

- Player in line of sight or just made noise:

- Move as close to player as possible. 

- attack

- Not

- Move toward last known player location then attack if able

- Normal damage. Push

- Brute

- Only melee

- Player in line of sight or just made noise:

- Moves as close to player as possible. 

- If push would kill player or move them closer to other Brutes / Infantry or away from artillery

- push

- else

- attack

- Not

- Move toward last known player location

- High damage. Push.

- Artillery

- Only ranged or aoe

- Player in line of sight or just made noise:

- If in range

-  attack. 

- Move as far away from player as possible while staying in LOS / range

- not

- move to be in range / LOS if possible 

- attack if possible

- Not:

- Move towards closest ally that is not alert (if any). If not, move to be in LOS / range of last known player position 

- if can see player 

- follow above for attacking when in LOS / Range

- if not

- shout (alerting other enemies) if in range

- Normal damage

#### State

- Enemies have 2 states: idle and alert

- idle: Enemies can patrol or be stationary

- alert: When they become aware of the player, they abandon their behavior and behave as indicated above

#### Turn algo

- If idle state

- Check if aware of player

- If so, enter alert state if not already

- update last known player location

- If not, do nothing

- If patrol is true

- Check if patrol nodes are set

- Check if coming or going

- Check if on target node for direction

- If so, switch CurrentPatrolDirection

- Find next unoccupied node that will nav to target

- set target node to that node

- Do awareness check as above

- If alert state 

- Check awareness and update last known position as above

- Follow above rules for each type of enemy

- If did not attack or perform other action, shout to nearest unaware ally