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[Compact Cola]

An open-world, action-adventure game with puzzle and upgrade elements

While the world exploration and dungeon-crawling aspects are heavily influenced by A Link to the Past, the game will have more focus on both open-world design and combat. The game will have a large, central, open area with 5 or so smaller open zones branching off. The combat will also be signifigantly different as it will emphasize gunplay and ranged attacks much more than LTTP.

The zones of the game will each serve a purpose: a tutorial/starter zone, the final zone, and the other three each having a theme centered around a central mechanic. While you will start in the starter zone (believe it or not) and the final zone will not be accessible until the other three have been cleared, the other zones will be accessed in any order as they contain non-required puzzle solutions and items gained from the others.



A 60s/70s retrofuturistic setting and theme

Visually the game will emulate an retrofuturistic setting stemming from idealized ideas of the future from the 50s-70s. Think fallout but generally much less...  apocolyptic. Generally.



This will shine through in the character and enemy design, building archetecture, certain UI elements, and even aspects of the story/quests.



Simple questing system alongside more continous story

At this point I haven't spent much time on the story yet, but I do know that the game will feature simple small quests along side a larger narrative that drives the game forwards in some way. There will be a simple dialogue system.



A majority of these quests will be lighthearted, satirical, and (hopefully  ) funny. Even the main plot will not be too serious as the game is heavily influenced by the cheesy, camp tones of retro space comic books and action adventures.



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This is a pretty big project and I'm working on it by myself, so in all honesty it will likely not be out anytime soon. HOWEVER, I do plan on keeping this page updated by releasing frequent status updates, concept art, and even demos at some point


So if any of this sounds interesting make sure to keep checking back!

[Compact Cola]

! UPDATE !

With a heavy heart I am remise to say that this project will be on hold moving forwards. I can tell from the massive amount of replies and support I have already gotten that this will be disappointing news for hundreds and hundreds of adoring fans and supporters.

In all seriousness though, I'm gonna be spending my time on a smaller, more gameplay-driven prototype version of the game. This demo game will not be very large or have very detailed visuals, soundtracks, or story elements in order to put more empahsis on the core gameplay mechanics I am considering for the full version in order to make sure they are actually, well, fun and worth developing on.

For reference this game will be a top-down shooter, open-world action/adventure game with some RPG elements. Whereas the full version will also feature both a consistant narrative and story-driven side quests, this version will likely only have simple and functional plot beats to progress through. Less effort will be put into visual and audio design in order to analyze and refine the actual gameplay which will have top-down shooting as a primary mode of interaction.

Of course both the full game and this demo game are in very early stages of planning and conseptualization, so there is still a lot to be decided on and A BUNCH of progress to be made.


In the meantime though, I plan to release important updates on either this thread or a new post under the demo game. So if any of this sounds interesting or you have feedback do not hesitate to reach out to me! Thank you!