[Dev Log] Sneksodus

[HighwireAct]

Hey Thumbs,

 

This is my first solo game project, so I figured I'd opt for a twist on a simple classic. I chose A Holy Exodus of Snakes as my episode prompt, so my game is, fittingly, a take on Snake.

 

You know how a snake screwed that whole Garden of Eden thing up? Big mess. God was not happy. In this prequel to snakes-on-earth, He decides to banish all of those poor hissers to Purgatory for the transgressions of their Satanic cousin. Take the role of [a snake] as you and your scaled comrades eat souls to regain your strength and slither through Limbo's guards to the world above!

 

Gameplay

Think Snake, but a lot of snakes. Instead of nondescript dots, snakes can consume wondering souls to make themselves longer. There are two ideas for movement I've got going at the moment:

• Direct control - for when the player is only controlling one snake, directly controlling its head movement with WASD/arrow keys seems like the best option
• Turn-by-turn control (a.k.a. time-freezing) - for when the player is in control of two or more snakes. To avoid the confusion and disorientation that would come with controlling multiple snakes with the keyboard, my tentative solution is to let the player freeze time and deliver directions to each of the individual snakes before unfreezing and letting them carry out their turns. In an example scenario:
  • I want Snake 1 to turn left, Snake 2 to turn right, and Snake 3 to keep going in the same direction.
  • First, I freeze time
  • By default, Snake 1 is selected. I press the key for left to tell it to turn left.
  • I press the swap key to switch focus to Snake 2 and tell it to turn right.
  • Since I don't want Snake 3 to change direction, I unfreeze time at this point.

 

I'd also like for the player to be able to merge and unmerge snakes. If you have more than two snakes active, you can send one into the mouth of another to merge them, adding whatever length the one carried to the length of the other. You can also break smaller snakes off of longer ones if you need to coordinate multiple in order to solve a puzzle or pass a particular obstacle.

 

So I (hopefully) don't get too carried away with overscoping, here are a few goals I hope to accomplish in the next couple days:

• Get the head movement for the snakes working with direct control
• Get the rest of the snake's body figured out - how it'll construct new segments, how those segments fit together, how it'll slither around
• Implement soul-eating - let the snakes eat, let them stretccch
• Collisions - get the snake reacting and colliding with walls/its body segments

 

Oh, and here are some messy brainstorming sketches if that's your thing:

 

[Nappi]

This sounds very interesting! Snakebird made me realize how much can still be done in snake game space.

[eRonin]

This sounds really cool but also my head hurts already. Looking forward to it!

[coughlinjon]

lol "snake game space" is a great game space. Looking forward to this, Highwire