Adam Parker
WendiGO (2023)
After completing my final assignments from my Game Enterprise course at the University of South Wales, I decided to join a Game Jam with a colleague from the course. The game jam we joined was Ryan Laley Games Fall Jam 2023. https://itch.io/jam/ryan-laley-games-fall-jam-2023
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The game jam ran over four days with the theme "You are the monster," where we were rated on how well the submission met the theme. The quality of the gameplay/level design and how enjoyable the submission is.
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My colleague and I brainstormed different ideas within Miro, a website allowing users to mind-map information about the game idea. We kept the story basic and decided that the player controls and acts like a monster that is disturbed by human NPCs, and the monster's job is to get rid of them by killing them.
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A playable version of the game is located at https://itch.io/jam/ryan-laley-games-fall-jam-2023/rate/2334548
Ryan Laley Recorded Livestream
Ryan Laley played the top-rated submissions, where other developers voted and rated within the game jam, and WendiGO was in 6th place.
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Overall he complimented the sound design, character model, and flow of gameplay.
Showcase of WendiGO starts at 55:49
Player Character
In a previous Unreal Engine marketplace sale, I purchased a Wendigo model, which I believed was an excellent opportunity to use the skeletal mesh as the monster.
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One of the features of a Wendigo is that it has antlers, so when the player is sprinting, they can impale NPCs onto their antlers, and the body will be attached to the character for some time.
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I created a screeching ability to frighten NPCs around the monster so that the NPCs cower and stay in place, preventing them from running away or damaging the player.
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I designed the Wendigo to feel powerful, as it can kill AI in one hit.
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The health was visually represented by blood on the screen. The more damaged the player is, the more blood shows and covers the screen, but the blood will go away after a period of time due to the Wendigo healing abilities.
AI
I have designed a simple AI for the game, and not to make it overly complicated, the three types are
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Unarmed Camper - Runs away from the player character
Pistol Camper - Low damage shoots the player and moves away
Rifle Camper - High damage shoots the player and moves away
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Outlines in the distance show these AI, and the player needs to kill several highlighted enemies to progress.
Music and Sounds
Owning royalty-free music and sounds, I created the music to play at different states of the player character. If the player character is not in combat, then a more slow-paced tone will play, but if in combat, a more aggressive song will fade in and the slow pace out.
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The sound effects I have used are packs I have previously picked up through Humble Bundle, and I filtered through the sound pack that sounded good such as the character dialogue, monster noises and gun sounds.