Team Name
Coffin King Interactive
Timeline
Summer 2023 – Fall 2023
Students
- Rikki Martin
- Andy Lazaro
- Aidan Mondress
- Temidayo Bello
- Nathaniel Fenoglio
Abstract
Our goal is to create a game which combines key elements from the tactical combat genre (i.e. Fire Emblem, Advanced Wars) and the top-down dungeon crawler genre (i.e. The Legend of Zelda, Crypt of the NecroDancer) in a way that encourages players in using their brains to solve expansive, thought-provoking dungeons. We also wish to take inspiration from puzzle games, as it is clear that the puzzle genre and the tactical combat genre have not been effectively combined as of yet, despite the fact that we believe these two genres to have a natural affinity.
Background
At the moment, we believe the currently-available library of video games, particularly within Steam’s relatively narrow selection of titles, is sorely lacking in the strategy department. Good strategy games are hard to come by, because in recent years, the majority of new strategy games simply aren’t innovative enough to stand on their own. We believe that combining the strategy genre, the dungeon-crawler genre, and the puzzle genre will be a breath of fresh air for consumers everywhere, inspiring new interest in genres that have been all but abandoned in the current era, due to the hyper-fixation on realistic graphics and open worlds. We wish to return to a more classic formula, using the 8-bit art style and top-down perspectives of the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance eras, putting the emphasis on compelling gameplay rather than visual aestheticism. There is precedent for this, with popular games such as Shovel Knight and The Escapists rising to popularity with this art style in the 2010s, using gameplay to hook the player rather than visuals. This could drastically change the video game industry, resulting in the creation of many new innovative strategy games, which would be a major success for consumers everywhere.
Project Requirements
- World Map (outer environment that player navigates leading to dungeons)
- Dungeons (various puzzles and enemies)
- Turn-Based Combat (scenes triggered when player encounters enemies and controls 6 characters in turn-based gameplay)
- Player/Enemy Functionality (player and enemy movement and interaction)
- Player Team Characters (6 characters controlled in the turn-based combat scenes)
- Menus (Start Menu, Combat Menu, Pause Menu)
- Dialogue (text dialogue with options for player to choose)
System Overview
Castles and Crypts is composed of 5 layers: User Input, Scene Manager, Menus, Combat Scenes, and Dungeons/World Map layers. Data that is needed for each layer to perform their respective functions is passed between the different layers through references to the necessary game objects in Unity and is accessed through the various scripts employed.
- User Input Layer – responsible for receiving input from the keyboard or joystick controls that are supported by our game. The various input controls are mapped to their respective variables or methods utilizing Unity’s Input Manager system
- Scene Manager – controls the changing of scenes in the game at the appropriate junctions in gameplay as well as storing global variables allowing for persistent statistics across different scenes
- Menus Layer – contains the functionality needed for displaying the different menus of the game such as the Start Menu, Pause Menu, Combat Menu
- Combat Scenes – handles the tactical combat situations initiated by the player model colliding with an enemy model, the player controls 6 characters in turn-based combat with a grid layout
- Dungeons/World Map – default layer of gameplay, player able to explore environment with free movement, dialogue display/interaction
Results
Castles and Crypts is available to be played at the link below.
Castles and Crypts is available for download to be played as standalone application for Windows. Download zip file, unzip, run file Castles And Crypts.exe
Windows Standalone App Download
Title screen
Intro scene character and artwork
Intro scene enemy encounter
Intro scene item found needed for solving puzzle
Conditional dialogue example
1st level of dungeon dark lighting example
1st level of dungeon Tower of Hanoi push block puzzle 1 (player must push all 3 blocks from room 1 to room 3 with the constraint that no block can be pushed into a room that contains a smaller block and only the smallest block in a room is able to be pushed)
1st level of dungeon Tower of Hanoi push block puzzle 2
1st level of dungeon Tower of Hanoi push block puzzle 3
Castles and Crypts is available to be played at the link below.
Future Work
The game’s current iteration is playable and is functioning without bugs.
The turn-based combat scene functionality needs to be further developed and integrated into current scenes.
Dungeon levels artwork and design can be further developed and added on to the currently implemented levels.
Save and load functionality not currently implemented in game and can be developed and integrated if it is desired.
Music exists in the start menu scene only at the moment and can be created and integrated into scenes.
The game is available to be played in the web browser, or as a standalone windows application, but can eventually be made available for play on Steam.
Project Files
System Requirements Specification
Architectural Design Specification
