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[srslypretentious]

The Development Blog of

Bad Things Happen is a game about home invasions. You play as a father desperately trying to prohibit invaders from gaining access to his home and family.

Buggy First Prototype: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40806.0

Hi  

This is going to be the Development Blog for the project I am currently working on: Bad Things Happen. It’s not very far at the moment (barely a prototype). I hope to post an update at least once a week, and show the progress.

Gameplay

My focus for the game is the provide the player with the experience of facing the unknown- that feeling that makes you pause when hearing a noise late at night. It is essentially a game of hide-and-seek between an enemy and yourself, the stakes of which is the safety of your family and your possessions.



The way I want to achieve this is to focus on vision. Different areas of the house is obstructed depending on where the player’s character (the father) is. Moving around changes what can be seen. So, the aim of the player is to find the enemy before the enemy can steal the player’s possessions or reach your family (mother and baby).
 


I want to implement different defences that can be upgraded such as: cameras and an alarm system which provide vision, and improved locks on doors and windows, which increase the time the enemy takes to break into the home.


 It won’t be a very long game with each level only lasting a couple minutes. The player tries to protect their home for as many days or levels as possible, before “bad things happen”.

There are a lot more ideas that I want to implement, but for moment I am going to focus on making a playable prototype so that I can get some feedback as soon™ as possible.

Milestones
Prototype: Friday 23 May
Alpha: 7 June

Thanks, in advance, for any comments, ideas or criticisms.

[jamesprimate]

yikes! what a theme 

certainly some intense possibilities with the concept.

[Christian]

Reminds me a bit of The Castle Doctrine, but I like the more realistic style of your game. Eager to see more

Is that just a prototype art style? If so, what kind of aesthetic are you thinking of for the final game?

[NinthPower]

very interesting premise. followed.

[srslypretentious]

@jamesprimate : Yea I am approaching the subject matter...carefully. Which is another reason why I want to get a prototype out- (to know if I am going "too far" with it).

@Christian : Yes, the graphics are just place-holders for the moment. I am leaving the option open to experiment with the style, but I have an idea for a darker cartoony art style (in the direction of Dont Starve, The Yawgh or Super Meat Boy).

@NinthPower : thanks!

[Nicholas Lives]

I'm seeing this develop as a sort of reverse-Hotline Miami. Where you stop the crazed killers in scary Halloween masks rather than be one. Although I'm not sure if you're going for the kind of horror vibe, but this would certainly be the right place for it!

  I'll definitely be keeping my eyes plastered onto this one.

[srslypretentious]

@PureBredGentleman: Thank you! I will try not to disappoint.

The Prototype is up and running, or rather, limping (bugs and all)! Any feedback would be great.
 
Playtest Forum Post: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40806.0

After the stuggle to get a playable prototype build, I reworked the upgrades menu and fixed the cameras upgrade.

Upgrade Menu


Camera Upgrade

[srslypretentious]

I got some great feedback from various places. Thanks for everyone that contributed!

From the feedback I made a list of the most prominent problems in the game at the moment and will focus on getting those sorted out.

Known Problems

• Music not always playing throughout the game or not restarting when the game restarts.
• Create more paths for the player to move through the house.
• Upgrade stage has various problems, such as not calculating/updating the points correctly, needing more points to buy an upgrade than its’ cost and able to buy upgrades when not having the correct amount of points.
• Only load upgrade window after first level so that the player actually has points to be able to buy something.
• Grammatical typo in one of the load screens. 
• Pathfinding and navmeshes are dodgy to say the least.
• Burglar sometimes get stuck at the beginning of the level.
• Line of sight triggers and overlays sometimes show the wrong overlays or don’t show anything at all.
• Needs to be clearer what differences upgrades make during the attack stage.
• Need to provide more feedback to the player about the different end states. Currently, game overs, wins and game finished aren't really discernable.
• Need to provide more feedback about the consequences of  when the burglar steals something or reaches a family member.

I will keep an eye on the feedback threads and add to this list as I fix them and if any other problems come up.

Once those are fixed I will focus on changing the graphical style and implementing extra content.

Will update again soon™.   

[srslypretentious]

I played around with various ways of improving the line of sight overlays, and settled on using procedural primitives and raycasting.


(The player is represented by the green cube and the red cube is an obstacle blocking the player's line of sight.)

It's not exactly original, pretty sloppy at the moment, and will need more refining, but at least it's an elegant solution that's not too difficult to work with.