I am happy to announce that the first version of the prototype for Live, Die, Escape is now live on my profile! The game is very simple and short currently, should be a quick playthrough. I really appreciate anyone who is willing to play the game and leave any feedback in the comments. I'm really enjoying this project so far and I hope to be able to make some good progress on it in the coming weeks.

This week I spent my time hammering out as many small features as I could, really trying to feel out how I want the game to play and what my goals are. I added a couple key features this week to focus on really building out the basics of my vision.

Bug Fixes or Small Changes

I made lots of tweaks to the stats system and how the points are randomly distributed each death. I also tweaked the endurance time per point.

    

I removed the ability to assign stat points manually, I feel this ability gives the player too much power and can be easily abused. I really like the way the random distribution feels, and don't want dying to give any major advantage over staying alive (otherwise there would be no point).

Each stat now also decreases by 1 every death, to give more of a penalty to dying. Health can't go below 1.

I labeled many things in the game, in lieu of better art, because it can be hard to tell what things are. This includes doors, items, guards, and control points. I also made locked doors appear red, to make them easier to identify. The labels and bright colorations are, of course, temporary, and should be easier to distinguish once the art gets a good upgrade.

I also fixed lots of small bugs which would be boring to recount here, so I will skip them.

New Features

- Added a large guard, who does no damage, but slowly follows you around and sends you back to the starting room if you are caught.

- Added Control points and control chips, which go hand in hand. Control points allow the player to reboot turrets for 10 seconds, giving you a small window of time to pass through. Control chips are needed in order to operate control points.

- Added a win condition. It is very basic, and appears as a green square in the last room. On touching this, the game is done. This is, of course, also temporary, but I thought it important to have a win condition to mark the end of the game for the prototype.

Conclusion

This game is still in its very early stages, and as I say a lot, feedback is always welcome! I'm really excited for this project and I can't wait to show my progress again in next week's devlog. Thank you so much for reading, and make sure to check out and play the Live, Die, Escape prototype on my profile whenever you get a chance :)

Calvin