Game Devlog

Overview:

Title: Fatal Wish

The concept: Fatal Wish is a 2d action game that uses elements from the souls-like genre to create a difficult but rewarding experience. Your character is cursed by the fatal wish, you have no health but instead only a stamina bar which doubles as your health bar. Utilizing your ability, the fatal wish, you make your way through multiple tough and thrilling levels.

Genre: Fatal Wish is a 2d action game. It incorporates elements from the roguelike genre. The playable character has permanent death and has a dungeon crawler-type feel to it. The game will be top-down with a bird's eye type view. Fatal Wish has a stamina bar and relies heavily on the main boss of the game making it a semi souls-like.

Creation process and influences: The concept of Fatal wish was born from subtractive design. Dark Souls is a big inspiration with its thrilling and challenging gameplay with the unique use of a stamina bar. The stamina bar alone adds a challenge for the player to overcome and forces the player to adopt a more refined approach to combat. By toying with the idea of a stamina bar I came up with the idea to have it double as the player's health. From Dark Souls came the stamina bar but the idea to create this game as a roguelike came from the influence of a mini-game in night in the woods called “demontower”. Demontower was a 2d action game with levels similar to that of binding of Isaac with enemies mindlessly wandering until you get in range. In this game, the player was forced to use limited dashes as an important resource as health was scarce. The game would take away health at every level and give more of these dashes and if you ever used up all of your dashes you would be vulnerable for a few seconds giving a window of opportunity for enemies to attack. The dashes created a fun and fluid feel but also a resource to be worried about. Using the subtractive design and the combination of certain elements from these two games birthed Fatal Wish.

Audience and competitive analysis: The target audience for this game is primarily seasoned gamers but also can be anybody that is persistent enough. This game will have an emphasis on difficulty so it may not be accessible to everyone. However, the visuals can be enjoyed by any onlookers. The goal is not to make the game unreachable by the average person but more to be a rewarding experience for those that put in the time. Difficult games have increasingly become more popular over the years with titles such as Dark Souls, Getting Over It, and Jump King, all seeing major media attention for their difficulty. Fatal wish will try to tap into the same audiences. This game should find success along with these titles as it has a unique system. Fatal wish should see audiences that enjoy difficult games but also streamers that find success from difficult games being broadcasted.

Game treatment and concept art: Fatal Wish will test your mettle in this fast-paced 2d roguelike action game. The peace of your kingdom has been disrupted by the takeover by a range of fantastical creatures. The assault on your home was calculated by the menacing blights who have now taken up your throne. As your duty as a benevolent king, you make a sacrifice to leave your humanity behind for ultimate power. The fatal wish grants you tremendous abilities to annihilate your enemies and the blights. You traverse the kingdom cutting down anyone in your way to take back the throne. Takedown levels of enemies using your sword and the environment around you. In Fatal Wish, stamina will be a resource that the player will love and fear. Stamina replenishes which means that your health just the same will. However, using your stamina by attacking or evading will bring you closer to death. Making sure that it won't reach 0 or its game over. This will make any interaction in the game more challenging and will force the player to take a mediated approach rather than a mindless guns blazing tactic. The game will consist of one open space with smaller enemies and one boss room with the blight. The character will have a simple directional attack from a sword and a dodge roll to evade enemy attacks. Both moves use a portion of stamina. The smaller enemies will be at the start of the game to be used as a tutorial area so as to not overwhelm the player. Fatal Wish will be focused on gameplay but a narrative will be present with an ending and maybe some hidden secrets along the way. The game will have pixel graphics with 16-bit art. The areas explored will be melancholic with dark interior colours. 

Image sources:

Shmup sprites and mockup by Skazdul on DeviantArt

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/351069733439032649/

Doomridge Dungeon Demo by Pixel Pyjama studios

https://www.pixelpajamastudios.com/doomridgedungeon.html

Skeleton by Johan Vinet

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/346988346264168821/

Screenshot of Doomtower by u/AxelNeedsAMedicBag

https://www.reddit.com/r/NightInTheWoods/comments/mybqh6/the_true_demontower_sta...

Screenshot of Enter The Gungeon

https://www.destructoid.com/fans-of-nuclear-throne-and-the-binding-of-isaac-will...

Disclaimer, I do not own any of these, and all rights go towards the creators who are mentioned.