Alien based game. (Darkplaces engine)

[OpenMaw]

Alien - The Game

Originally, this thread was started as a "what if?" About a survival horror based alien game. Something we haven't really seen since Alien Resurrection.

It is now, somewhat, more of a thread about discussing an upcoming project.

The Story: You're Captain Dallas. You've lost two of your crew to some horrible thing you found on an alien planet. You won't let anyone else die because of your mistake in letting it on board to begin with. You grab a flamethrower, a torch, and head into the vents to contend with the deadliest creature mankind has ever faced. The perfect organism.

The Mission: Navigate the vents, whcih are nearly pitch black, whilst trying to avoid being taken by the alien. You must disable four locks to open the seal of the vent on the other side. This will allow you to draw the alien into the air lock, and then blow it into space. Can you succeed where he failed?

Limited resources. Almost no light. Atmosphere. Survival. Danger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW6OgV8_q7A#ws

[newbeing]

After playing Amnesia my mind also wondered towards Alien. The only issue I can see being a problem is the escape or avoidance mechanic since Xenos seem to always know where you are. The Alien would have to be like the one in Alien where it's pursuit is pretty slow or based on surprise attacks.

Something like Alien 3 with locking the mechanical doors could be a good substitute.

[OpenMaw]

After playing Amnesia my mind also wondered towards Alien. The only issue I can see being a problem is the escape or avoidance mechanic since Xenos seem to always know where you are. The Alien would have to be like the one in Alien where it's pursuit is pretty slow or based on surprise attacks.

Something like Alien 3 with locking the mechanical doors could be a good substitute.

That's actually not a bad idea. The Doom Aliens TC employed something like that during two of the levels where many aliens would come through various sections, and if you didn't close off the doors you'd be overwhelmed. It could work similar with just a one-to-one.

I'm thinking of experimenting further with this idea in the "Darkplaces" engine.

[OpenMaw]

This is the music that will accompany the main portion of gameplay.
http://soundcloud.com/openmaw/the-shaft

All the sound FX to be found in the mod will be sourced from Alien where possible.

A couple of preliminary images:


Obviously it's a modified AVP2 mesh, but I rigged a very early bump and gloss map for him. The skin is based on a custom AVP2 skin called "Giger's Alien" which I have modified quite a bit. (Tweak the color pallette, etc). It's really quite something to see this guy come out of the shadow and try to hobble away. Animation will come later.



The flamethrower. It was about ten minutes of work so far. More detail to be added, and then of course texture work.

[Don PapI]

I liek th eidea, or soemthing like the psone ALONE IN THE DARK with alien

[OpenMaw]

Level design is purely structural right now. No texture work or detailing. By the end of it, it should look at least similar to the vents from Alien.

[OpenMaw]

Quick update:



This is the death screen that appears if the Alien gets ya.

I plan to rebuild the map into something a bit bigger and structured around four junctions. I don't want to drop the maze aspect because it does give the entire thing a high level of tension. Should look much better next time I show anything from it.

I've built up enough for game play. There is no HUD(You have no way of knowing how much fuel you have in the flame thrower beyond experience and figuring out how many shots I let you have with it. You can't force the hud back on either, I told the code to not even draw it.) the movement speed from Quake's has been reduced to an absolute crawl. You're supposed to be in the vents after all.

I'm even fiddling around with a bit of a motion tracker to boost the tension that much more. There may be additional fuel cells at some of the junctions, i'm not sure about that yet.

I decided to let the torch have infinite power, because i'm already tempting frustration for some players with how things are stacked as it is. The Alien can out run you in the vents, the alien can kill you in one hit. The Alien has the capacity to be anywhere from the start of the map. The light doesn't really give you a huge distance advantage either. The flamethrower actually reaches farther. (Which is rather cool, and sorta authentic to the movie.

[PVTDukeMorrison]

This looks fun, release date?

[Terx2]

Doesn't look that bad

[OpenMaw]

This looks fun, release date?

I hope it will be, too. ... Ha. Not touching that one. I will finish it, I am finishing it, but i'm not gonna even qualify that with a "WID."

Doesn't look that bad

Hopefully by the end it will look a fair bit better.


Quick update:


Flamethrower has some more greebly detail on it.(Textures still wip) Alien has been made bigger, and new textures for the vents, of course.

More to come.

[chupacabras acheronsis]

this looks interesting, i had that idea of a survival game going around my head for a while.

and this

Quick update:


Flamethrower has some more greebly detail on it.(Textures still wip) Alien has been made bigger, and new textures for the vents, of course.

More to come.

is creepy as hell. if you're open to advice, i think that putting the POV near to the ceiling would make the vent more claustrophobic, and maybe slowing down the animations of the alien to really unnatural speeds will make it scarier.

[OpenMaw]

Quite right you were. I was able to adjust the pov up a bit. Not a lot, because too much and the alien seems to derp out and not have the capacity to attack the player. (Lot's of odd "quirks" i'm trying to overcome.) Absolutely good advice there. Helped tighten up the sense of the vents being small.

New level layout is proceeding nicely. Adding in a few bits of piping and things in some areas and back lighting them to give some nice dynamic shadows. Pictures will be forthcoming in the next week or so.

[Terx2]

What kind of music are you gonna use? And will there be a section in the vent were you see the small alien hive and a cocooned brett like in the directors cut?

[OpenMaw]

What kind of music are you gonna use? And will there be a section in the vent were you see the small alien hive and a cocooned brett like in the directors cut?

I'm using samples from the actual Alien soundtrack for the menu and outro. I'm still debating the level music honestly. I may not have any because the soundscape can really bore into the player's head and keep him on edge.

Well, Brett was held in the landing leg of the Nostromo, along with Dallas. (That's where Ripley finds em). My goal is to keep the player strictly in the vents as seen in the scene with Dallas. A maze of basically almost entirely pitch black passageways.

If I ever do an expanded version of this idea with a unique narrative, but keeping in tone with Alien, I may have the cocoon idea come into play. As of right now though i'm just trying to keep things fairly simple.

[Jango1201]

Keep this up!!! the video creeped me out completely. I live in a basement apartment and after watching the video I had to turn my tv on and sleep with my lights on!!!!!!!! lol