Sector 49

Hey guys,

So I thought I'd write a thread about the game I have been working over the past few months. Several people helped me at different stages of this project but unfortunately stopped at some point because of a lack of time. I want to thank them at the same time for all their efforts and passion they've put into that project.

The game we were trying to make is a 2D stealth game. I wanted to combine old school game mechanics with recent gameplay. I was very influenced by games such as Deux Ex HR, Monaco and Mark of the Ninja just to mention those.

I wanted to enable the player to analyse his environment, hack the technologies available and reuse them against his enemies to escape, steal or assassinate depending on the objectives. It was also important to be able to finish a same level differently.

The project all started when I met Guizmus back in June. We started working on a zombie kind of game and quickly decided to drop it as it wasn't original at all. Guizmus created many of the events back then that the current version of the game is still using.

We started creating the basic gameplay we would need such as basic AI, opening doors, cameras, placeholders graphics, etc.

<img src="http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3536/e31k.jpg" border="0" />

Thanks to his help, interactive menus, patrol behaviours, dialogues and much more were implemented very quickly. Dismach then joined us for a little while and kindly provided us with polished assets:

<img src="http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/5913/ybjd.jpg" border="0" />

Unfortunately very quickly we experienced limitations. Because we were making a stealth game, dynamic shadows / lighting became essential. We tried to work with different solutions but none worked as expected. For example the canvas plugin was probably the most interesting one, but it was too demanding for the CPU. A webgl solution would have been ideal but so far nothing has been done.

<img src="http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/3742/c1jw.jpg" border="0" />

Then Sved joined us and he was a great addition to the team. However Guizmus did not have time anymore so I was left on my own to script most of the behaviours and I'm not as competent as he is. Nevertheless I kept working hard on the project hoping that a Lighting system would be integrated in a future version of Construct 2 or someone in the community would manage to create something awesome :)

Sved created lots of different artwork before he decided to pick a different art direction

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img14/7898/c61r.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img69/4918/z7ag.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img703/4688/9m6i.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img811/8706/lhrh.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img855/2576/5o4r.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img577/7474/1s46.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img46/6889/a5fs.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img706/8750/wgc0.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img707/3264/50sx.jpg" border="0" />

So the game evolved little by little to what it is now. More enemies, with better AI, sentries, cameras, inventory, access cards etc.

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img22/1686/8pdz.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img823/608/8mvl.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img209/2029/h17u.jpg" border="0" />

Today I found out that a project very similar in terms of gameplay that I had been following has managed to get 99% greenlighted on Steam and is going to be funded by Team17: youtube.com/watch

Therefore because both projects are so close and I don't even have a decent lighting system which is essential, I'm not sure if it's worth it to keep working on it and as there is no sign of anything coming that way if I refer to the latest roadmap from Scirra.

So I'm a bit torn as I don't have as much time as I used to have but I thought it would would worth to share the work the team had done on this game.

Thanks for reading me :)

That really sucks mate, that concept art is really cool and I love stealth games. Maybe you could consider adding some new elements and look at making it for tablets and such as well.

thinking out loud here concerning the lighting ...

Cant you take a reverse approach ?   less darken ?

meaning, take a black shape with a low opacity and place it over certain elements and manipulate the opacity needed by events.

just a thought, seems like you put in a lot of time, would be a shame if it go to waste.

Hey,

Thanks for your comments. I can try but I'm not sure it's viable as solution. In the meantime you can try the demo version here: konnee.free.fr/sector49

Bear in mind that it's still work in progress:

• some rooms at the extreme right are empty and needs to be artied up
• the tank is not doing anything yet
• objectives need to be added
• the memo for the generators need to be updated
• more enemies to be added
• hacking needs to be added

Play with WASD.

Left click on door keypad to open, air vent to cross, wardrobes to hide...

Middle click on certain crates to push / pull (generally in front of air vent)

Im liking the consitentie in the level and the overal theme a lot.

The character didnt turn/rotate when walking around btw.

May I humbly suggest that you do not ever give up? Ever. Maybe they will face problems and cancel production? Maybe halfway through the development you will have an idea that will change everything and get your game the kicks it nees? Maybe you will be able to export it to android market and handheld devices? Maybe yours will have better multiplayer support?

I may understand if you WANT to give up because of something else, like lack of time, real life pushing hard, girlfriend getting pregnant... but I hope you do not give up because someone else is doing something similar.

Regards;

-Wind.

lennaert that's weird, normally the playable character rotates towards the mouse, i.e. Mouse.X and Mouse.Y

I have less time now because of I'm current job, but I'm going to try to keep working on it. There is a lot to do and a lot need improvements but yeah you're right I should not stop because of another project doing the same.

Haha :D   ok, a mouse ...

Wasnt obvious at first; looked again and it worked :)

Keep up the work, and if you want a pair of extra eyes on what you got, feel free to drop a pm :)

The concept art looks awesome, but the game needs improvements <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Good luck <img src="smileys/smiley20.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

There's always a way. Metal Gear Solid 1 and Tenchu on PS1 both had stealth, but no dynamic lighting. Sometimes both sound and line of sight can be enough if used right.