THE HOST
ROLE
Programmer, Designer
DESCRIPTION
The Host is a game that was created in 36 hours for the Global Game Jam 2023 where the theme was Roots. It is a rogue-lite bullet-hell game, where you play as a deceased spaceman who is the host of a parasitic plant. Throughout the game, you will fight off attacking enemies, collect experience and level up. You will have to plant your roots into the ground when the experience bar has reached its maximum limit, this is shown at the top of the screen and indicated by a lightning charge. When rooted, you gain access to a talent tree, which then shows you new weapons to unlock or upgrades for current weapons.
Engine
Unity
Timeframe
36 Hours
GENRE
Roguelike Bullet-Hell
PLATFORM
Mobile, Computer (PC)
The Inspiration
The inspiration for The Host came from my own personal love of space, I knew before the jam started that I would like to create a space game, therefore when I received the game jam theme, I incorporated roots into the game. I thought it would be a nice mechanic for the player to have to choose wisely when to root into the ground, as it stops the player from being able to shoot and move. I would also say that I got gameplay inspiration from games that I have played, such as Vampire Survivors and Brotato. Because of my own love for this genre of games, and how much fun I have playing them, I wanted to create my own.
My Responsibilities
-
Programming and creating functional scripts
-
Coming up with the game concept and level design
-
To ensure the difficulty in the level's design was balanced.
-
Sprite creation, character and enemy design as well as animations.
-
UI and UX design
Project Goals
-
To create a game that was fun to play, and also left the player wanting to play again, to achieve this, we implemented a kill count and the use of a currency that could allow you to buy more characters with different play styles.
-
To have a finished prototype of a game that could be submitted to the Global Game Jam.
-
To come up with an interesting concept idea, that could be developed further with the use of more characters, different levels (planets) and new weapons.
Challenges I Faced
The challenge we faced was creating a game in 36 hours that we were proud of. We also needed to make sure that the game difficulty was balanced correctly, to achieve this, we play-tested the game multiple times and got other people participating in the jam to play our game.
Conclusion
I'm extremely proud of what I produced within the time frame I was given, furthermore, I am going to continue to develop the game and create more levels and characters. I also want to put it on the app store so that everyone can enjoy it.
PHOTOS OF PRODUCTION PROCESS
