Les Catacombes de Paris

An Arcade-style dungeon crawl, with action for one or two players, where you are the monster in the depths below.

Comment

Inspiration

Inspired by a nightmare fever dream about haunting the Parisian underground, the madness of a torturous dream combined with the rush of a time limit culminate in a twisted tale. Play through the adventures of the wraith and a demon, as they feast upon the bodies and souls of human intruders. Will you succumb to the scourge of crusaders and tourists, or will you reign supreme in the Catacombs of Paris?

What it does

This game features the movement of two separate characters who must work together to defend against intruders. The demon, Terreur, who can feast on the flesh of humans, unless they are armed against unholy beings. The wraith, Peur, can unleash a pulse of wicked energy that will send even the boldest crusaders cowering defenselessly. Once scared, the crusaders are easily devoured, leaving a soul behind for Peur to consume.

How I built it

This game was built in Unity3d, albeit in a two-dimensional setting. All character pieces are locked onto a grid, where they are permitted to move one space per action. The characters have their individual collision boxes that let the determined interactions take place. All scores and kill counts are sent to a central processing object, which computes Win/Loss conditions, as well as score and game progress.

Challenges I ran into

Collision avoidance for enemies was tricky, trying to think about it in terms of "proximity rectangles," or bounds that exist relative to an objects location, that check for a target in its parameters. The discrete square-by-square movement was also tricky, this was resolved by giving the physics bodies a directional velocity for a time, after which the object would snap to its supposed final location. The velocity of the object is calculated such that it moves right into its final destination.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

This whole game was a solo project, meaning I had to work tirelessly to start and complete the game within the 24 hour time limit. Not only did I have to do all the code and environment construction, all the character designs and spritework, as well as game design fell on my shoulders. It was a lot of work to get an aesthetic and functional object, but it was a thoroughly satisfying experience, as well as a great product to show to colleagues and family.

What I learned

Programming an enemy AI that responds to the player's input and positioning is the biggest learning curve I encountered in my project, since not only did I have to get an appropriate response, the response had to be reformatted to fit the movement rules of the game.

What's next for Les Catacombes de Paris

I hope to polish up this game in the future, to smoke out a few bugs, as well as adding a few new features and levels, and maybe even an involved storyline. This game has great potential and can definitely be improved with more time and sanity.

Game Rules

The Wraith(Tall Skeletal One) is controlled with WASD. the Demon(Short Toothy One) is controlled with arrow keys. Movement occurs when the buttons are pushed. The Demon can eat tourists (humans in yellow and orange), but will fall if touched by sane Crusader (red and white humans with the hats.) Defeat all the human invaders to win. The Wraith can unleash a cross shaped blast that can cause humans to be frightened. (They will emit purple spheres when scared.) When crusaders are frightened, they can be eaten by the Demon. Although the Wraith will fall if touched by any humans, killed humans will drop a soul when killed. These souls are worth a lot of points, but will only persist for a bit before losing power and vanishing. If one character falls, they can be revived by the other. However, if both characters fall, it's game over!

Built With

Share this project:

Updates