Features
01.
Single-Player
02.
Puzzle based
03.
AI Enemies
04.
Metroidvania-themed
About the Game
TENDRIL is a metroidvania-esque game where the player is rooted down to a hub room with a large tendril, the player is free to explore multiple rooting paths that expand from this hub where they can encounter many different chamber types, these include puzzle chambers, combat chambers and environmental hazard chambers where the player will be challenged by an appropriate task that befits said chamber.
The primary mechanic is that after a certain amount of time the tendril will yank the player back down to the hub room, however, all progress the player made is kept meaning they can re-traverse the paths quicker. After the player has progressed past three chambers they will enter a large puzzle chamber where upon completion the player will be able to anchor their tendril to a new location allowing for them to progress further upwards.
My primary focus on TENDRIL was the UI for the game. The game has a horror-like theme and therefore I chose a fitting font for the title, ensuring to include the root-like aspect of the T within TENDRIL within the title as an additional nod towards the Game Jam's theme. The menus were designed to be simplistic with minimal options, in part due to the fact we did not have much time to implement more complex features, but also to ensure it was easily navigated by players.
I also aided in mechanic and some level design. I spent some time creating 'rooms' for each section of TENDRIL and blocking this out within Unity, though only the first level was added to the game. This included placement of the obstacles within the levels such as the spikes which the player must avoid. We made the decision to not include a way for players to damage the enemies, to lean more into the feeling the player is trapped and trying to escape, rather than having the freedom and time to battle the enemies. This creates an almost anxiety within the player, which is the feeling we were going for.
My Contribution
How We Made It
TENDRIL is a game created as part of the Global Game Jam 2023 over the course of 48 hours. This year's theme was "roots".
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Instead of going with what we would consider to be a typical thought process, such as going with plants or trees, we decided to take the term more literally. We wanted the player to be rooted down and have to escape this throughout the game. Thus sprouted our idea.
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This was the first time the majority of us had participated in a Game Jam, and this proved to cause some issues within our team. We had limited resources and had to come up with different ways of testing our ideas and implementing mechanics, but we made it work in the end and developed the idea into something more gory than we had originally intended - the game we presented at the end of the Jam.
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Unfortunately due to our issues with resources, TENDRIL was not complete to the quality we were aiming for. However, this leaves us to potentially work on the project once more in the future to develop it into an even better work of our imaginations.
Developers:
Sam Ivory, Lewis McIntyre, Dylan Potts
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Designers:
Finn Atkinson, Laura Ward
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Music:
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Sound Design:
Jack Finch
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Art: