A short update because unfortunately there isn’t much to show today.

I’ve managed to implement the 180° quick turn as well as the backwards walking animation. I also started with the inventory system and so far I can open the inventory, pick up items, move them around and that’s it. I spent most of the time reading, watching and learning about UI elements, arrays, user inputs, etc. A real learning week but I didn’t want to rush things nor copy tutorials and even with better understanding the code is still pretty wild and needs to be rewritten and improved a lot. It’s a rather big system and is intertwined with a lot of other systems, therefore it was clear that it would take longer but I’m on it.

So I will use the rest of this DevLog to write about some basic ideas and concepts I’ve outlined over the course of this week.

My main idea is to have a hybrid of a Silent Hill and Resident Evil game. I like the atmosphere, music and stories of a Silent Hill game and I like gameplay mechanics like puzzles, limited inventory or metroidvania-esque level design. I recently replayed the first and second Silent Hill and realized how “bad” the level and gameplay design is. I love these games. Don’t get me wrong. But everyone who played the games knows that the gameplay isn’t challenging and that the levels are really monotone and full with useless doors and you’ll visit most of them only once and then never again. In comparison I prefer the level design in Resident Evil, whether it’s a big mansion or a museum turned police station. Rooms are more unique and you need to know your way around in the places, go back and forth and most notably think about your route. You can only carry a limited amount of items and in combination with the scarce ammo you always have to decide what you’ll need and take with you and which way is the safest. I would say these elements are what make a Resident Evil game feel more like an actual game than Silent Hill. So I want to take both of best worlds.

I also thought about the enemy design. In Resident Evil and Silent Hill neither the regular enemies nor the bosses were challenging. They acted more like bullet sponges and especially in Silent Hill, where the ammo wasn’t as scarce as in RE and monsters can be avoided more easily, they weren’t a real danger. I came up with a couple of ideas of monsters that stalk the player, are temporary passive and in general a little bit more clever than the zombies or monsters in the mentioned games. I want the player to deal with the enemies in special and different manners to create a more diverse gameplay that requires the player to put a little bit more thought into his actions rather than just clearing rooms and collect the items. Same goes for the bosses. I might break the established run and gun mechanics and go for more
(for the genre) unusual boss designs with different phases and gameplay elements. I’m a big fan of the Metal Gear and Souls like games and in general a fan of games with good gameplay and boss design so I’m confident of creating something to my gusto. Time will tell. I need to also mind the tank controls though. The game should be completely playable and doable with them. But fights be a bit more difficult with them I suppose.

I worked as well on the story and it takes more and more shape. But I won’t say anything regarding this for now. All I want to say furthermore is that I’ll continue this week with the inventory system and the prototype in general. I’ve set myself a goal of 6 months to finish the prototypes and pre-production and I think this is still a realistic time frame.

Like I said this is just a short update but if you’ve read this so far thanks again for your interest and if you have anything on your mind regarding this project please let me know.

See ya around!