A downloadable game for Windows

A prototype made for one of my modules for University.

The game is still missing some of the crucial gameplay systems and mechanics, at the moment it's pretty much a playground with the current mechanics for the player to try. I am unsure if I will come back to this project...

Currently the goal of the game is to scan and capture the animals, whether that be through your own methods or by the aid of food. An achievement could be to collect all of the pages in the journal.

We haven't had much time to optimise the game or playtest so be aware of some issues.

If struggling with low frame rate, lower the graphical quality in the settings menu.

The gameplay loop revolves around the player exploring the levels, capturing animals to unlock their transformations, and using them to progress further. The game was supposed to feature 2 'forms' that the player is in, the human 'form' and animal 'form'.

In the human 'form', the player has limited movement but gives you access to the scanner which is what allows you to scan and capture items.

While in the animal 'form', you would gain the specific animal's abilities, which could be a deer's high jump, or a bear's claw attack. These abilities would be used to traverse across previously inaccessible areas, solve puzzles or even allow combat!

I have developed the animal transformations in a separate project, however, it's unfortunately not finished and isn't in the final project at the moment. This system is necessary for the game so without it the gameplay just doesn't really work right now...

The stand-out for the game are the animals, the game revolves around them. The goal was to provide a dyanmic environment where animals interact and exist without the player's presence. The AI took quite a while to figure out and it's still quite basic, as of now the animals can:

Wander
Eat food
Rest
Sleep
Escape from the player
Attack the player (only certain animals can do this)

Each action changes how the animal behaves and their vision, for example, if an animal goes to sleep, the player will be able to approach the animal very easily.

For the AI, I wanted to learn a new method of implementing AI so I used behaviour trees instead of the usual state machine implementation that I would use.

To capture animals, you need to find ways to distract and sneak up behind them. As of now, the most reliant way to capture an animal is by giving them food or wait for them to sleep, if you get caught they'll try to escape!

When they are captured, they will behave like other items and will go into a selected inventory slot and you are able to place them down or take them to the base scanner. (feature doesn't work, it would allow you to take the animal's DNA and unlock the transformation)

Capturing and scanning items will fill up your journal with useful information. such as hints for how to capture animals more effecitvely or what areas they reside in.