"Escape" is narrative driven co-op experience. Suzan is on the run after bringing her "not so smooth" boyfriend on a high stake job. Both players have to do their part to go forward and escape from the military that is trying to capture them.
FULL GAMEPLAY
TRAILER
CODE SNIPPETS
PLAYER 1
INTERACTABLE.CPP
INTERACTCOMPONENT.CPP
CRANE.CPP
SPLIT-SCREEN LOGIC
Spawning
We check if controller ID == 0, because if it's not, then we know that this is player 2 (ID 1), and then we can add correct input and spawn location.
NARRATIVE BREAKDOWN
HOW DO I TELL A STORY IN A 5 MINUTE GAME?
We have 2 characters and a story. The key here is to:
- Introduce the characters in a way where it feels natural and not too forced.
- Give a bit of a backstory, enough so that the player can get a feel of the characters they're playing as and why they are where they are, and what they need to do and why.
In a 5 minute narrative driven game, I think touch and feel is important. Make the player understand, but not too much. Sort of like they're playing chapter 1 out of 10. They get a good introduction but not really the full picture, leaving the player up for their own interpretation.
Well, we start off the game with a short line of text displaying
"Every story has a point where everything shifts. Ours began long before we understood what we were stepping into."
This gives the player a very short introduction to the story they're about to dive into. We then see Suzan laying on the ground, talking philosophically about "Running" and that you start running once something catches up to you. Hinting to the player that she might be in trouble or being chased. Followed by her introducing our next character "Travis" and saying that they "just took 1 wrong job" etc. Alright, now the player got some sort of backstory, we can clearly understand that she is talking about the past and that they were on some sort of mission.
Throughout the first segment of gameplay, we encounter our first enemy. It's a helicopter flying by them telling them to surrender. Once again, telling the player they're being chased, but this time, we know a little bit more about by what.
MAKING THE PLAYERS GET A FEEL OF THE CHARACTERS
This is where dialog and cinematics come into play. After the first segment, Travis and Suzan has a dialog, where I tried to display their personalities a bit. Suzan is more sharp-edged and not afraid to get dirty, and Travis is a bit of a pussy, scared of heights and should honestly not even be on that mission.
ENDING
To wrap up this story without actually ending/closing it. I decided to make and ending where the player wants more, or the next part. We see Suzan being captured by the military and Travis half-dizzy realizing that she's being carried away. Sort of like, what's gonna happen next? Is Travis alone now? What's gonna happen to Suzan?
