Unique Selling Points

Spreading blood as a mechanic:
Whereas most games use blood purely as a visual, here spreading it directly contributes to your ability to attack enemies.

Movement restriction:
Restricting movement to only inside blood pools adds an element of platforming to an otherwise purely combat focused game.

Enemies

Three normal enemies that wander randomly and run away when hit:
Union (2 HP), Pepper (3HP), Carrot (4HP).

Cult leader Pepper:
Hides in the outskirts of the map, requiring a series of blood pools to reach.

Win & Lose Conditions

Lose: Enemies do not attack, so the only way to lose is to run out of blood. This is replenished only when killing an enemy, making it impossible to simply follow one enemy's blood.

Win: Reach and kill the cult leader Pepper.

Gameplay

Character:
A demon only capable of moving through blood. Movement through it is fast and precise, and jumps are predictable.

Combat & Moves:
• Jump: Used to traverse blood pools and move around the environment.
• Melee: Strong attack that can only be used up close, requiring the player to move to the target first.
• Ranged: A weak attack that causes the enemy to bleed and spread more blood to move through.
• Taunt: Causes enemies to invesigate, allowing the player to get one to start bleeding, even if none are closeby.

Progression

The main form of progression is creating the path to the cult leader by maiming and killing the veggies. The difficulty comes in balancing keeping the enemies alive to spread more blood, but not letting your own blood meter run out.

Style & Atmosphere

Audio: Harsh but quick sound effects make the hits feel painful. Water sounds used for the blood reinforce the fast movement through it.

Visuals: Thick dark outlines, combined with the high contrast clear backgrounds always keeps the game state readable. The player is very bright, with the enemies being much darker, which helps differentiate them.

Early on, the entire team was contributing to brainstorming, settling on what was still a vague idea at the time. I then focussed on making a mini Game Design Document to pinpoint the gameplay loop we wanted.

As things were progressing, I created a progress report system on our shared board to keep track of the features we could still add within the time limit. This system continued to be used for the rest of the jam.

Once we had a good idea of the art style we wanted, I started work on the required shaders we'd need. Using Unity Shadergraph, I worked on a cell shader and outline shader.

Towards the end of the jam, I worked on smaller additions such as SFX, particles, screen shake effects, parts of the HUD and UI, and the shader for blood pools.

Unique Selling Points

Health as a Resource: Every strike is a risk/reward tradeoff, pushing players to strategize rather than just button-mash.

Cyberpunk Aesthetic: Few hack-and-slash games explore this dystopian neon identity, helping the game stand out visually.

Enemies

Standard Thug: Simple but tuned for satisfying back-and-forth combat. Attack delays signal intent, making dodging and parrying skill-based.

Weak Thug: Added after feedback showed early areas were too difficult; also used later for pacing and encounter variety.

Win & Lose Conditions

Lose: Death only comes from enemies, not your own abilities. Prevents unfair “self-kill” scenarios.

Win: Clear all required fights and reach the level exit.

Gameplay

Character: A cyborg with enhanced movement. Player agency is prioritized; even when hit, movement stays snappy to avoid frustration.

Combat & Controls:
• Normal attack: Has high stamina cost and low damage to prevent spamming.
• Parry: High-risk timing move that rewards skill with stamina and damage.
• Dash: For quick escapes or positioning.
• Health Attacks: Trade-offs designed to make players weigh stronger attacks against having more health.

Progression

Level Scale: Encounters blocked by K.I.L.L.A.L.L. shields create structured combat pacing. Optional side routes add challenge and risk/reward variety.

Game Scale: Optional upgrade Boxes boost stats, heal, and encourage replayability.

Style & Atmosphere

Audio: Cyberpunk-inspired tracks and city ambience reinforce the world without overwhelming gameplay.

Visuals: High-contrast neon palette (blue = player, red/orange = enemies) ensures clarity in fast combat.

Starting from nothing more than a vague theme, the first step was brainstorming and ideation. Working out a few ideas, then picking one to continue iterating on. Making prototypes was an important step of the process here to already work on game feel.

When I was happy with the prototype, it was time to work on a Game Design Document. This further locked in things like progression, and level design philosophy.

While iterating, I focussed primarily on fixing issues found during playtesting, the moment-to-moment decision making, and the overal game feel during combat.

For the last part of this project, it was time to use this game design document to make a short vertical slice. This is what the final itch.io version is, and it manages to showcase a lot of the design already, while also being a fun demo to play.

Gameplay

Character: An astronaut exploring a black hole. Their movement is slow and calculated, adding to the spooky atmosphere

Controls:
• Shoot: Hitscan shot calculation. If anything that can be interacted with is hit, particles appear to reinforce that.
• Reload: Reload the clip if it's not full. Accompanied by a sound effect.

Progression

The fully linear level gets more difficult over time with more enemies and more puzzles. These puzzles only consist of shooting buttons to open doors, which adds variety to the shooting gameplay.

Style & Atmosphere

Audio: Lots of ambience and reverb make the space feel unsettling.

Visuals: High amounts of fog with little colour and harsh light also help make the environment unsettling.

Enemies

Apparition: A cloud of particles that drains more HP the closer it gets to the player. Moves slowly towards the player once spotted

Boss Apparition: Drains more HP, requires more shots, but moves slower.

Win & Lose Conditions

Lose: Be in close proximity to enemies for long enough that they drain your health bar entirely.

Win: Reach and kill the level's boss Apparition.

Based only on a theme of 'Deep Dark', I focussed a lot on atmosphere in this project. I looked into things like volumetric fog and ambience, using limited resources to create a spooky vibe.

The early stages of the jam were mostly spent experimenting with Godot's systems and trying to make something fun from what I found, which made this quite a unique game jam from an ideation perspective.

In terms of design, I attempted to build a level that evolved as it progressed, with more puzzles and enemies at it goes on. There is even a basic bossfight against a larger enemy at the end.

My decision to make a shooter was based on the idea of an astronaut exploring a black hole, and the fact that it was a genre I was particularly interested in at the time.

Unique Selling Points

Survival Focus: It is impossible to "win" in this game, the goal is simply to survive for as long as possible. This is something that isn't attempted often in mainstream FPS games.

Unique Setting: While post-apocalypse is a common theme in shooters, the focus on a nature theme combined with the simple art style makes this game visually unique.

Enemies

Thornosaur: Walks up to the player and attacks when in close range

Flying Thornosaur: Flies towards the player, decending above them, dealing damage when in close range.

Tangler: Can't be killed. Moves towards the player and Entangles them when getting close, causing them to be unable to move.

Win & Lose Conditions

Lose: Getting hit a lot in a short period of time causes death. Health regenerates automatically, but it's still very possible to get swarmed

Win: Getting a higher score than the previous round.

Gameplay

Character: The last human in a post-apocalypse taken over by plant monsters.

Combat & Controls:
• Shoot: projectile bullet that one-shots enemies, making for satisfying hits.
• Grapple: The player can grapple to specific points, which can come in useful when surrounded.

Progression

As time progresses, more enemies will spawn. In addition, getting the golden apple will spawn a large number of extra enemies, optionally increasing difficulty further.

Hitting multiple enemies in succession will increase the combo multiplier, allowing the player to get a higher score.

Style & Atmosphere

Action-packed music and futuristic sound effects stand in contrast with the ruined aesthetic of the environment to make for a unique style.

As the theme for the game jam was nature related, we chose to do our initial brainstorming outdoors. Here, we pinned down the genre and type of game we wanted, along with the art style.

In addition, I worked on some smaller features like the UI, title screen, end screen visuals, and skybox in Unity.

Once we had the basic movement controller ready, I started work on building the map in Blender. A number of iterations were made based on playtesting done by the rest of the team.

An early iteration of the level environment.

This project has had many faces, as the first concepting and prototyping happened around 6 years ago, before I really knew much about game design. This project has been an outlet for me learning about all aspects of game design and development.

An image of the game circa 2020.

Being a game that's still in development, a lot of things are still in flux. The build that you are seeing is still just a vertical slice that will likely see major changes.