Enviroman

• 

  Gameplay

• 

  The tree sprite we liked.

Inspiration

It's my (Celine) personal belief that games are a form of interactive literature. Everything we see influences our values, and games are no exception. All games are communicating some form of theme, even if they don't tell you what to think or even use text. People (especially young people) play games for hours at a time nowadays, so recognizing the impact games have is more important now that it's ever been. Despite this, people still tend to think of games in terms of their entertainment value, even if what they communicate can be just as important. For example, in Minecraft, when the player wants something, they turn to nature. They kill animals and cut down trees without needing to consider the impact. When they need more metals, they just look for more caves on new land in the infinite world. This is an important part of Minecraft and a major part of it's gameplay, but it characterizes the environment around the player as a continuously exploitable source of resources. Minecraft itself has caught on to it's importance and tried to use it's power as a tool of awareness through things like the Aquatic update, but one could argue Minecraft's themes run to it's core.

What it does

This is an attempt at a more consciously themed form of video game. The player is still striving towards a goal with the environment's help, but the environment does not exist solely to help the player. The player defends a magic tree, and a herd of animals within it's zone of safety that keep the land around the tree healthy. The player fights against monsters coming from the sides of the screen with bullets, but their bullets harm both the enemies and the animals they're meant to protect. The animals also aren't totally docile either as they might be in other games. They wander around the map as they wish and every so often may decide to attack the player. The player must manage it to keep the land around them healthy. Every couple of enemies killed, another animal appears. The player loses once an enemy reaches the tree. The player is scored based on how many animals were in the area when they lost.

How we built it

The game was built in Godot with sprites made in Aesprite.

Challenges we ran into

The concept we're attempting is mostly new and we had trouble making a product off it. We can still appreciate what we ended up with.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We believe our game idea reflects our inspirations well. We are also proud of how the tree sprite turned out.

What we learned

It takes a lot of prep and perseverance to be able to produce a game in 1 day. Next time, we need to come prepared and be selective with what seminars we go to.

What's next for Enviroman

Enviroman may come back in a different form as a different game.

Built With

• aesprite
• godot