[WIP] Zircanedium - Unity3D Indie Stealth game (gameplay demo now available)

Alright, so I finally managed to start a proper project with Unity, and here it goes;

CONCEPT IN SHORT
I'm actually going to spew out quite a bit of text, so I'm going to compress it all into one sentence first. Zircanedium is an endless futuristic stealth game involving replayability by dozens of mechanics, and gamemodes, along with randomized elements in every map you play.

MORE IN-DEPTH
Zircanedium is an endless futuristic stealth game (as stated once already) set in an AI testing facility, with diverse mechanics, multiple gamemodes, (possibly multiplayer) and dozens of playable levels. (The visual style is being re-thought, yet again)

Gamemodes:
The gamemodes planned for now are:

• Ghost: You are not allowed to be detected. If you're detected while playing in Ghost-mode, you lose.
• A to B: Your goal is to make it to the end of the map, detected or undetected.
• Predator: Your goal is to eliminate every single enemy from the level, detected or undetected.
• Time Attack: Your goal is to make it to the end of the map before the timer runs out, detected or undetected (It is randomly picked if the player can or cannot get detected during a Time Attack).
• Saboteur: Destroy/Disable all traps in the level.
  
• There will be more gamemodes later on.

Random elements:
This is something that may or may not need to be explained, but as they'll play a big role in the game, I'm going to do so anyway. Zircanedium will utilize random elements in way, that allows for a lot of replayability. You may stumble upon the same level twice within a few hours, but some things won't be the same. The things I'm planning on completely randomizing are:

• Enemy paths
• Some decoration's positions
• Lights
• Positions of traps
• Gamemodes
• There'll be more things randomized later on, these are probably the most meaningful ones

Enemies & Threats:
A game isn't good without some sort of threat, right? As the game is set in an AI testing facility, you'll encounter robots, turrets, sound detectors, surveillance cameras, laser grids, and more.

Player Equipment/Gadgets/Utilities:
- Mute-nade : A grenade that creates an aura of silence around a small radius.
- GrenadEMP: A thrown projectile which disables traps and enemies for a short period of time.
- Infra-patch: An eyepatch that allows the player to see through walls. The Infra-patch requires energy, and can be recharged at small chargers placed around the map. It also allows the player to see in the dark.
- Smoke-bang: A thrown projectile that creates a smokescreen, which will allow the player to slip past enemies and cameras.
- Lure: A small ball equipped with tiny speakers emitting sound, distracting enemies.
- EMP mine: Does what the GrenadEMP does, but is triggered when an enemy steps on it.
- Shockade: A small device on the player's arm that allows taking down the enemy robots. The Shockade also requires energy, which is shared with the Infra-patch.
- Camouflage: A device that camouflages the player when they go inside some foliage, such as trees or lay down in a flower bed.

Other mechanics:
What I'm going for with Zircanedium, is a game with really diverse stealth mechanics. So, I'm trying my hardest to add features, such as:

• Leaning
• Laying down
• Camouflage
• Some sort of darkness/light recognition
• Noise
• Lots of interactable objects in the environment
• There's more, but these are probably the most notable ones.

'Endless'
I also stated that Zircanedium is an 'endless' stealth game. What that basically means is that the player will make their way through different rooms (not procedurally generated!), that all have randomized elements, and a different gamemode. When they reach the end of a room, they will move on to the next one. This goes on until the player fails the objective given to them (See gamemodes above), or dies.

Level design:
My ultimate goal with the levels of Zircanedium is giving the player as much freedom as possible. Each level will have about 2-5 different ways to complete them, all of them being different in some way, while still allowing the player to slip past enemies.

Updates:
I will try to update the post as frequently as possible, but only when I have something notable to show. If I've made a few 3D models for the game, I might not showcase them separately, unless they are actually important. I will be making videos of each bigger update on YouTube, on my channel. Click here to see the latest video (#3)

Gameplay Demo - Update #5 (Downloaded .exe from Dropbox): click here
(I've had some issues with Web Player so I had to make the game downloadable from DB)
A new demo will be uploaded after every 5 updates.

Feedback on the idea/mechanics is welcome!

Here are a few screenshots of my current test scene (I only managed to take two, as my screencapture program decided it didn't want to work anymore).

New screenshots will be posted when the new testing scene is finished or otherwise noted in the update logs.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Thanks for taking the time to read, much appreciated!
TAP

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Please keep in mind that this is in the "Work in progress" forum for a reason.
Thank you.
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Okay, time for update #4! This is quite a small one, because I've been trying to plan my game a lot more. I also decided to go from a hand-painted style to a photorealistic/sci-fi style. We'll see how it goes.
Updates:

• Alarm hubs! - You're now able to permanently toggle off alarms for one level, by finding a hidden fuse box in the scene. Later on these can be used to turn off some lights in the scene off permanently.
  
• Enemy models! - Still needs some improvement, but they're pretty much done.
• Some new 3D models! - Models for the alarm hubs and levers to toggle laser grids are now complete. Screenshots below.

Spoiler

The alarm hub (basically a fuse box):




And the lever:

 

Updated the forum post to give more information about the game! The next update will be out within 2 weeks.

 

Hey Puolygon
One thing I noticed is the audio (noise) seems overly amplified to me as the player in first person view.
I think all the sounds may be just a little high - especially the footsteps.
I believe you may have set the audio up like this on purpose for a design reason. Maybe to exaggerate to the player sound/noise is what will KILL you?!

Edit: What made you decide to change art direction?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read.
Yeah, the audio is really loud as of now, but that's just for testing purposes. I've been working on making them louder depending on the speed of the player.
Also, I changed the art direction because I didn't feel the cartoonic/hand-painted style fit the game's atmosphere and the feeling I'm trying to create.

 

-- UPDATE #5 --

Along with a few updates, a gameplay demo is available!
Click here to download the game in it's current state (Update #5).

Updates:
- Finished testing level (very linear, doesn't have any freedom of movement, as it's mainly a way to demonstrate what the game has now)
- Ventilation Shafts: Use the sound of ventilation shafts to cover some of the noise you make!
- Some gamemode prototypes!

• Saboteur: A fusebox in the level must be destroyed before the level can be completed.
• Ghost: You cannot get detected.
• A to B: Make your way to the goal. Detected or undetected.

(The gamemodes are nowhere near complete, so if you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to reply to this thread!)

- Some 3D models to make the game look less boring:

• Benches
• Flower Beds
• Open and closed trashcans
• Ventilation shafts (will be changed in the future [the sound will change as well])
• Roof lights (will change)
• Small wall lights

- Added a gamemanager, that takes care of player progression, gamemodes and optimisation.
- Tuned the character's speed and jumping to make it feel a bit more believable
- Reduced headbobbing
- Fine tuned player footstep sounds (still loud for testing purposes)
- Added placeholder sound for the fuse box
- Fixed some issues with player noise
- Fixed a small bug with alarm never going off
- Added a button to reset the game and the gamemode
- Added a first aid crate to the test level - approach them and press the 'interact' key to get 50 health

 

-- UPDATE #6 --

New:
- Microphone input! You can now make noise by talking into your microphone.
* The amount of noise you make via your microphone is added to the total noise level.

Fixes & Changes:
- Completely re-written enemy AI

To do list for Update #7:
- A better game testing level that allows the use of available mechanics and has more player freedom
- Crouching
- Some placeholder sounds for enemies to work as player feedback
- A new alarm sound to replace the current horribly annoying one

 

-- UPDATE #7 --
New: (things written in bold are more important)
- Mute-nades: A thrown projectile that creates an aura of silence around it
- Enemy sounds (placeholder) for player feedback
- Crouching
- Enemy takedowns! Enemies can now be killed by sneaking behind them and pressing the melee ("V") button.
- "Predator"- gamemode! You must take down all enemies in the level before you can complete it

A new level will be made after I've managed to get most of the game mechanics together, because I want the player to be able to use all possible mechanics available to complete the map. (crouching, laying down, etc.)

To do list for Update #8:
- Laying down
- Camouflage/Hiding
- Optimisation of sound detector/sensor code
- Better in-game screenshots

 

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-- UPDATE #8 --
New: (things written in bold are more important)
- Created an algorithm to calculate light levels (prototype), which leads to:
- Hiding! You can now hide in shadows, making it harder for enemies to see you
* Visibility meter (testing purposes only)
- Created an audio occlusion algorithm (prevent sound playing through walls), that allows different objects to absorb sound more than other objects (will later on be used to increase/decrease player footstep volume depending on the surface they're walking on)
- Ability to lay down

Fixes & Changes:
- Lasers can now be re-activated
- Sound detector code optimisation (~ 5FPS performance boost)
- Experimental UI is now cleaner and easier to read

Also, new screenshots! They can be found under the "Screenshots" spoiler in the main post.
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