Building Red Empire: AWS Game Builder Challenge

November 10, 2024 (1mo ago)

I've recently decided to sign up for a game development hackathon hosted on Devpost. It's called the AWS Game Builder Challenge, and the purpose of this hackathon is to incorporate their AWS products into your game. Even if I don't end up placing in this competitive hackathon, I want to be able to turn this game into a multi-year project that I continue to develop and improve.

Inspiration

I've taken a lot of inspiration from other parkour FPS games that I've played in the past. I also want my game to be an open world adventure game, like Zelda, where the player has to solve puzzles and find clues.

Game loop

In this game, the Red Empire, which is the kingdom that controls the land, has fallen to a plague of monsters. Your job is to find the hidden locations of 5 bunkers scattered throughout the map, complete the boss fight, and earn a key. Once the player earns all 5 keys, he will be able to banish the monsters. However, for the AWS Game Builder Challenge, I will only submit the boss fight portion of the game, as it is the most thrilling and exciting part. After the hackathon, I will work on the rest of the game.

Some features I'm excited to work on

I want to implement interactable NPCs that spawn in different POIs who will give you clues and maps. I also plan to implement weapon shacks which can be found throughout the map that provide upgrades to your weapons. Lastly, I want to implement a day-night cycle with unique elements to both. For example, wolves and dangerous beasts spawn at night, and you can only access a boss bunker at night.

Conclusion

As said previously, I'll be submitting this game to the AWS Game Builder Challenge. However, this game's success is not dependent on the outcome of the hackathon. Winning the hackathon will surely help, but I plan to take this project far and turn it into a complete game.