Horror Vacui

Hello everyone. Bear with me as I acclimate to this format.

Tools:
+Engine - Gamemaker: Studio
+Visuals - Photoshop
+Music - Musagi
+Sound Effects - SFXR

Download version 0.7.0 for free at skelefactor.com.

Horror Vacui is a game I've been solo developing on Gamemaker: Studio since last December. The original idea was to make a simple game for public display as a part of my final MFA thesis show. I did make that version, but what I'm logging here is the single-player "exploration" version which I became so much more fond of.

Summery of Play:

(The player character)

Basically, the aim of each level is to fill each floor tile with light. One could think of it as claiming territory.

(An unclaimed tile (left) and a claimed tile (right))

There are enemies that will take your tiles away whenever they walk on them. Under normal circumstances, contact with an enemy will cause the player to lose all tiles.

(Basic enemy)

When the player has claimed enough tiles without getting hit, they will attained a "charged" state in which they may destroy an enemy through contact.

(The player, "charged")

There is also a bullet orbiting each level. It will fire through the air in an attempt to hunt the player. Contact with the bullet will cause the player to lose all tiles, but the player can also bait the bullet into destroying the enemies.

When the player has claimed all tiles in a room, they are transported to the next level and the cycle repeats.

There are also 5 "boss" encounters where the rules change a little.

The above screenshot is from the first world of the game. There are a total of five worlds. I just "finished" the last world yesterday. There are secret powerups/hidden modes of play that I've already dispersed throughout the five worlds. There are a few other features I want to add/expand upon. I'm also going to rework much of the existing game for the sake of balance/cohesion. As it is my first game, I have already learned quite a lot throughout this process.

Done:
Ha, woops! I didn't end up giving this log the attention it needed, but I did in fact finish the game. Interested parties ought to check it out at our itch.io site.