Nathaniel Marshall

• 1 Player

• DigiPen Student Project

• Top Down Shooter with slight Strategic elements

• Solo Project Created in DigiPen's Zero Engine using Python

 

Nowhere To Hide is a game born from time constraints.

 

With two weeks to go until the end of the month-long Project Cycle, the project I had was overly ambicious. I took a good long look at the project and estimated the time required to make it work. I deemed it was fixable, but not refinable in the time remaining.

 

So, I started over with one central idea driving the new project: Simple idea, Player Makes the game Complex.

 

Hence, Nowhere To Hide's main mechanic emerged. Players controled a Space Invaders style of game. However, they were able to use their score to purchase Barriers to shield themselves.

 

Thes Barriers not only had different stats, but Shooting through the Barriers gave the Plater's bullets different Attributes while having varying levels of Defence against the Enemy attacks.

 

Blue -- Speed Up, Moderate Defence.

Purple -- Double Shot + Speed Down, Low Defence.

Green -- Curve Shot, High Defence

 

Except for hitting two Purples, these Attributes stack. Suddenly, the Player is juggling how they want to Build their Barriers while fending off the waves.

 

From bottom to top a Purple, Blue, Green would duplicate the shot, speed both shots up, then apply a Sine-wave curve to it. WIth the Curve, the bullets might enter Barriers to the Right or Left, adding their properties to the Bullet.

 

There was also a Fourth Barrier which acted as a sort of Mirror Shield, but it didn't mesh with how the other barriers worked as it was a purley defencive Barrier and did not apply any sort of effect to the Bullet. It was scrapped.

 

Finally, the reason Purple doesn't stack with itself is due to a humorous bug. Originally, Purple duplicated the bullet and set the two bullets directly to the left and right of the Barrier. If anothe Purple Barrier was there, it would Duplicate, and do the same. This lead to a large, though very slow barrage of bullets suddenly being fired. It was somewhat amazing, but gamebreaking so it as removed.

 

This game is a testimate to my tenaciousness and rapid prototyping. I was not afraid to scrap an idea I had spent an absurd amount of time trying to get it to work, start anew, and complete the new project in a short amount of time. It's simple and rough around the edges, but it is still a fun little game and I am proud that I managed to make it with in little over one week with other classes having work due then.