Making my first game - Portcullis (Part 1)
Greetings, fellow adventurer!
The time has come for my first challenge. As you already know, I will be doing one game a month as a way to learn everything I can about game development.
Starting from now (April 2022), every month I will make a game from start-to-finish based on one of the original themes of #1GAM.
With that in mind, the theme for this month is… **drum roll**
Theme - “Portcullis”
Before we proceed, I suggest you listen to the original keynote by @McFunkypants.
His words convey all the meaning that I want this blog to have.
For lots of current game developers, their journey started there and then. For me, it (re-)starts now.
With that in mind, let’s begin!
Definition
Portcullis is the name given to a defensive sliding gate at the entrance of a castle. It is mounted on vertical grooves and can be raised and lowered very rapidly by a single guard. It can be used to prevent the passage of unwanted enemies, or even to trap them between two consecutive portcullises.
Initial ideas
The first game ideas that came to my mind were:
- “Gatekeeper” - You guard the main gate of your medieval city. You have to decide who enters and who can leave. Good choices might have good consequences. Bad choices will always prove to be bad.
- “Open the gate!” - The King and Queen have returned from their long vacation, but it looks like they lost the keys to the Castle. You, as the Official Lockpicker of the Reign, shall open the gate for their Royal Highnesses. But don’t take too long, or you might lose your head.
I decided to go with “Gatekeeper” as I was having some issues coming up with puzzles/mechanics for the other title.
Game Concept - “Gatekeeper”
In this game, you play the very important role of guarding the entrance to the city.
As a core mechanic, you will have the ability of lowering and raising the Portcullis.
You might allow your citizens to enter, while prohibiting undesired people from doing the same. When enemies come to attack, you will be able to use the spikes of the falling Portcullis to crush them and prevent their success.
Do a good enough of a job and you will be able to upgrade your abilities in defending the Kingdom.
Do a bad enough of a job and it will be your head on a spike instead!
Time to finally get my hands dirty and play with Godot for the first time.
I’ll be back next week, with an update on the development of this project. See you soon!
