Ripperdoc

Day 1 in-game
Examining your patient on day 5
Running through a minigame on day 5 to install cyberware drivers

Inspiration

Ripperdoc is a game inspired by Cyberpunk themes, especially that of cybernetic enhancements ("cyberware"), as well as terminal-based games where command line interfaces are the primary means of interaction.

What it does

Ripperdoc is a text-based "bullet hell" set in a cyberpunk future where you play as a back-alley cyberware technician known as a "ripperdoc". Patients sit down in your chair needing drivers installed for their cybernetic implants, and it's your job to get them in and out safely.

All interaction happens through a simulated terminal where you scan patients to assess their hardware, run install commands to trigger minigames, manage hostile processes (viruses) that infect your system mid-session, and monitor vital signs to keep your patients alive. Minigames range from syncing brainwave frequencies to routing power through circuit grids to cracking network handshakes.

The game scales across in-game days, where patients arrive with more complex hardware, viruses become more frequent and aggressive, and health events grow harder to diagnose in time. Between days you can spend your earnings at a night market to upgrade your rig. Let two patients die in a single day and it's game over.

How we built it

We built this project using Godot and simply splitting the work in half between the two of us. Sound effects are found online and edited using Audacity, and certain graphics were made in Photoshop.

Challenges we ran into

We had a number of issues come up throughout the creation of Ripperdoc. The most notable was creating the UI for our game, which happened to be one of the most finicky systems. We essentially had to push through developing UI elements that kicked and screamed with us from the very start of the project until the very end. As well, this was Brodie's first time using Godot having no prior experience in the engine nor in game development as a whole, but this actually proved to be a very minimal challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Big shoutouts to Brodie for learning and becoming proficient enough in Godot in such a short period of time. As well, this was his first Hackathon and he was extremely committed to working all day and all night on this project. Overall, we're very proud in our final game as a whole as we've but as much effort as possible in such a small timeframe into each system and aspect of our game.

What we learned

We learned a lot about Godot, especially as it pertains the UI. As well, we both refined our skills in event-driven programming which is a very different way of thinking compared to "standard" programming. And of course, we gained lots of experience working under pressures on strict time constraints.