NitroSodium's FMP

Probably making a spine-tingling atmospheric mystery game.

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~FINAL BROADCAST~

The FMP has come to an end, and I'm starting a new blog in preparation for the second year. If you liked watching the development of Sinister, then please follow NitroSodium Rapid Prototyping at @nitrosodiumrapidproto.

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If you see this, PLEASE reblog!

After three long months of work, Sinister Afterlife is officially complete. Not only that, but you can play it for free! This marks my first released game as NitroSodium, and you can pick up a copy right now from the game's Itch.io page.

Sinister Afterlife by NitroSodium3002

Death slumbers. Phantoms roam. Stone crumbles. You live.

If you like exploring surreal worlds, avoiding skeletal ghouls, and restarting the sacred cycle of death, you'll probably enjoy Sinister Afterlife. It's a pretty short experience - three levels, taking you through a strange tower in the ocean, a decaying harbor, and finally, the shadowed center of an evil metropolis. On your journey, you'll search through warehouses on the shore of the underworld, ride a literal ghost train across a city of the dead, and avoid massive monstrosities too abominable to describe.

By reblogging this and playing Sinister Afterlife for yourself, you'll be supporting me (an upcoming game developer) and additionally getting yourself a fun horror game to play through.

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Implementing the New Icons

I used a PNG to ICO converter in order to put my new icons in the game.

This is on the most up-to-date version of the project. Unfortunately it doesn't show too well as the built version precedes the adding of these icons, and there isn't time to build another one. I think it is a good idea to record my progress here, however. If I knew how to do this from the very start, I would add it, but considering this is the last day of practical development, there just isn't time.

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This is a start-up screen I made yesterday for Sinister. Essentially, we have been given the option to make a unique start-up screen and file icon for the game, which would replace the Unreal icon when it is packaged and made an executable. Of course, I have already packaged mine, and don't plan on going through the ordeal of repackaging on such short notice (it requires plugging my hard drive into the arcade machine, as its jury-rigged PC is the only one that will package games) to just add a unique screen when it loads up. I will probably see if I can implement it into the old Unreal project file, but I'll upload the packaged file I already have when the time comes.

This is the icon I would use for the actual file, as opposed to the Unreal U that usually shows up. It's just my normal Grave Digger profile picture, but filled in with black. I love the look of hard, dramatic shadows contrasting with harsh light; it's an almost comic book-esque style, I think.

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Today's Tasks, 25/4/24

Unfortunately due to technical problems on my home computer (something about my Microsoft account not working, and that screwing with my PIN code) I could not make a game trailer.

Since I have finished the game and created a minimum viable product, packaged it, and filmed a longplay of it (though I can only edit at home) I will probably add stuff to my end-of-project slideshow.

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Final (?) Footage

This is the footage I'll edit at home to make the Sinister trailer. With only a few setbacks, the game takes ten minutes or so to complete.

Now I'm not really sure what to do. I guess I should work on my project slideshow? Then again, we've not been officially told to start it until the project is ended.

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Today's Tasks, 24/4/24

It's the last week of the FMP, and I need to make every second count. Today, in preparation to eventually put Sinister on Itch, I'll film a longplay of the game (in its executable state, so no Unreal overlay) which I'll edit when I get home.

No clue what I'll do for the rest of the project. Probably catch up on research and maybe work on the project slideshow.

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Itch.io Problems

Trying to make a project page on Itch is unbelievably frustrating. I think I somehow signed up for my account with the wrong email, and you need to verify your email to upload files (which I obviously can't do). And I've tried to change my email to my actual one, but Itch says it's in use. Someone claimed my own email address before me. The only way I could potentially circumvent this is to make a completely new account with another of my email addresses, which is going to suck, and I'll have to redo the page I made for Sinister, and a lot of things which just make this a constant struggle of red tape.

This is somewhat relevant to the FMP because uploading the game to the internet was a personal goal of mine. To make a name for myself as a game developer, but also to evaluate people's reactions with how the game works. Since I have been using playtesting regularly to make sure the game is intuitive, a positive reaction would prove that I had been successful in that regard.

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My Brother's Playtest

Yesterday I packaged Sinister into a proper game executable, and brought the file home on my hard drive. It didn't run on my laptop, but I theorised it would work on my brother's gaming laptop. Convincing him to actually play it took some effort - he is now entitled to 5% of any profit I make off Sinister when it goes public.

I was glad to see that from an outsider's point of view, the game was functional and somewhat easy to understand. He died a few times on the Docks, but questioned the theming of a "pirate town" in the underworld. Personally I think it works fine, since it relates to Davy Jones' Locker and other supernatural maritime mythos. Like a few other past playtesters, he suggested the addition of a sprint button. He also questioned the design decisions of Equalizer in the Streets, as it seemed to him that the giant skeleton posed no threat. When he got on the train, he expected there to be a chase sequence with Equalizer, but of course this did not come to fruition. Overall he liked the game, though admitted that if he had downloaded it on Itch, he wouldn't have donated.

His general experience has proved to me a few things. Firstly, the game runs on a moderately-powerful computer. At college we use massive PCs that can practically run anything, and so the games usually don't require optimization for lower systems. My home laptop can barely run anything, and this includes Sinister. Obviously if I had more dev time I would make it better-optimised, but I'm glad that you don't need a "battlestation" to run it.

Secondly, it proves that the game can be picked up and played. My brother does not usually play these puzzle/horror games and yet he understood what the game was about and how the systems worked. Making sure the game was intuitively-designed was one of my key goals for Sinister, and it has proven that I have reached it. My previous playtesters were mostly the same people - people who had played early versions of the game, who knew what they were going in for, who already knew what buttons to press. My brother acted as the perfect clean slate for this experiment.

Because I've now seen the Sinister experience from the perspective of a 'consumer', i.e. the sort of person who would download it off Itch, I'm going to start work on an actual game page and a trailer.

I did not provide a Google Form for this playtest, it should be noted, because there is no way my brother would do it.

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URBANTEST002

This may potentially be the last playtest I do outside out of the big one that'll probably happen at the end. "W23" (Subject A) and Tobias Harvey (Subject B) played the Street map, meanwhile CT (Subject C) played the entire game start to finish. Therefore there is a larger breadth of responses. Interestingly, a lot of people thought the game looked unfinished, which is a testament to the Streets packing in as much content as possible, while slightly skimping on detail like signposts and more buildings in the background. Notably, Subject C disliked the train because he was killed by the crushers several times and had to ride it many times over to the Hydro Plant.

As for what people enjoyed, there was a good variety. The crushers, the train, and the exploration section of Docks where you get the gold key were touted as the best parts of the game. Onto what people thought could be improved; the train couldn't have sliding doors without a lot of work, the texture scaling should probably be fixed in retrospect, and the first district with the Equalizer could've probably been increased in size and gameplay (i.e. exploring to find the key). I'm going to try and see if I can do something about the scaling of textures in the environment, though I'm not sure if it would do much.

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Considering Train Doors

I had my first playtest of a finished Level 2 (results will be shown later) and the person suggested adding doors to the train. I was hesitant to do this because the train doesn't actually get activated by a button, it gets activated when you interact with the actual train. The issue is, you can activate it from outside. This isn't an issue anyone has had before, but it could happen. If the train had doors that needed to be opened, someone could press E on the door, miss, and end up activating the train.

I created a copy of the elevator button and had it instead activate the train by means of a custom event. It is also positioned so that it can only be activated from the inside, and therefore it is harder to softlock yourself. The lack of doors added to the tension of the Tramway sequence, I felt, since you are more at risk of a Grave Digger climbing on. This can happen, but is very rare, and doors would certainly circumvent it. Another issue is that adding doors reduces visibility in what is primarily a visual sequence. You need those open sides to see the breadth of the city.

I attempted to add doors, and while I have not figured out how, they stop the train from moving. I suspect the collisions are keeping the actual actor from continuing its timeline, and so they will not be added. It would be too long of a technical endeavor when I have about six hours of work left. Five if you subtract lunch break.

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Final Train Sequence + Ending

Here you can see that the old bits have been redone with new engine sounds, and you also get the first video look of the Hydroponics area. All of this was made of ideas that couldn't be afforded their own map, or bits I knew I wanted to put somewhere but didn't know where. Near to the end, for example, those glass tubes carrying what looks like plasma, was a cool visual effect I wanted to put in the game. It's done by having an actor that is just the light, that moves forward in a loop inside of the tube object.

The ending could not be properly shown, as the button did not connect to any code other than a print string when I filmed it. So right after, I corrected my mistake and showed off the final level.

I think it's pretty succinct, and it works. Now I will bring in some playtesters for the Street map.

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Making an Ending

I decided to change the Tutorial map to a darker scene. This has cast the world into murky blackness, which doesn't really give an impression of a good ending. I was tempted to turn off the turquoise filter and bathe the city in natural light, but I decided against it. The afterlife will never be a perfect analogue for life in the mortal realm, so even once things are fixed, it won't be a utopia. I then tried a brighter sky. If you take into consideration that the afterlife, throughout the game, has been cast into twilight, it's stuck in limbo between day and night, as you are stuck between life and death. But once you revive Nharro, and order is restored, the new day can finally begin.

This is the level with a bright sky, and the ending text. It's on a tiny stone plinth overlooking the city, and you also have some instructions on how to proceed. I have programmed a quit game function when you press Escape, since the Unreal editor does it anyway but when people are playing this game as a .exe or however it gets imported, they will need a proper way to end the game without using Task Manager. This is an issue that my first project suffered - I brought a copy home to play and show my brother, but not only did it not run on my laptop, but I had to open Task Manager to kill the process.

I will show all of my progress on the train ride and ending thus far with a YouTube video. Then I'll bring in playtesters, and perhaps even package the game so it can run right out of the box. Then, if I'm really lucky, I'll put it on Itch.

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Today's Tasks, 19/4/24

I want to get development cleared this week so I can do the red tape next week, instead of stressing about the Unreal stuff. Today I want to add better sounds for the train ride (I prepared these yesterday) and also make a final "map" that'll just be a credits crawl. All in all it shouldn't take long, and I can get some playtesters in.

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Inspiration for the Train Ride

As much as the train ride segment in Level 2 was born out of a necessity to show cool level ideas without actually making them playable. A level in the city streets? A level in a church? A level up on the rooftops? A level in an industrial district? A level in a hydroelectric plant? It's all in there.

Obviously, framing it as a train ride was heavily inspired from Half Life. When the game begins, you're on a monorail, heading deep into the Black Mesa facility. Immediately it establishes a tone, your setting, and shows the sheer scale of the facility. It also hints at things to come. You can see tanks of toxic waste that seem a little poorly maintained, and exposed rail sparks as your tram passes it. These small touches suggest that perhaps safety is not a priority, which is quickly proven in the game's following events. You can also see the mysterious G-man watching you from another tram, furthermore hinting that things aren't quite right.

It's a classic opening - perhaps a little slower-paced than modern games, but still a classic. I think the idea to frame it as a rollercoaster ride also came from my childhood love of watching GoPro videos of theme park rides.

Like this for example. You get the vibe the ride is going for, you get the tension - the yeti lunges at your vehicle, but obviously you're not in any real danger. I've tried to do the same thing with my train. The slow descent onto the Church Tramway and slow rotation of the turnstile as Grave Diggers crowd ahead gives the impression that you're at their mercy, but actually they can't get in, and your cart goes too fast for them to climb on (they had a tendency to do this in earlier tests).

Tomorrow I think I'll get some proper playtests done, although I also have an idea for an intro level, that has the player on a road, getting hit by a bus, which thus takes them into the afterlife. I also do want to make the Street map a little cleaner, however, and add some proper sounds for the train.

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The Pylon Power Button

Across the canal on an industrial bridge, is the button that will end the level. I've not made it a Mortality Anchor this time, as you're not going to anywhere new. The journey has come to an end.

One other thing I've noticed, and somewhat of a glaring flaw if I'm ever going to release this game: Once you die and restart the level, any keys you've collected don't respawn. So temporarily, I'll make it so keys don't disappear when you pick one up. Time is running short, and I don't want to waste precious coding time fixing some trivial issue when I can use a workaround.

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The Journey So Far

Here is what I've done. I do plan to have the player board a second train at Dread Terminal, but this is the first journey. You go from the urban Metro station to the turnstile, through the Tramway and Church and into the metropolitan district and Dread Terminal.

I also added a final puzzle to the game. Once you head into the Weir, the waterside industrial estate standing between you and the Pylon, you have to avoid a pair of gigantic crushers.

It's a waiting puzzle where you have to dash forward while the crushers are non-extended. I was inspired by a Roblox game I played once, though I have forgotten the name. I imagine, story-wise, the pistons are powered by water from the canal. Essentially a massive hydraulics system.