The Darkworm
Game Designer - 2D Survival Game
Team Snark (2 people) - 4 months
Team Snark (2 people) - 4 months
The Darkworm is many things (intense, exciting, replayable, and more according to playtesters), but it started as an exercise in doing a lot with a little – four months, two teammates, and one core system. My partner on this project, programmer Spencer, came to me knowing he wanted to do something with cellular automata fluid simulation – we had worked together previously on Green Reaper, and he had faith in my ability to design around systems, as I did in is technical skill and creativity. With a central system in mind, I looked for something to pair it with, thinking through examples of simple, engaging game loops and hitting on the idea of “reverse Snake” – evading and defending against a long, wandering enemy which would kill in one hit, and which would stick to the shadows generated by a cellular automata light-dark system. Fleshing out gameplay with survival horror inspirations, and flavoring the mix with the bronze age and bloodworms, the trials of the Darkworm were born.
Aesthetics, gameplay, interactions, atmosphere - everything arose from the core ideas of the darkness system and "reverse Snake".
On this project, I handled:
- Designing and implementing gameplay, including level design, player controls, and spawn randomization
- Laying out, writing, and implementing UI – menus, settings, and HUD – to convey play information and contribute to the game’s atmosphere
- Running live playtests and distributing surveys (receiving 29 total responses) to assess players’ responses to the game and determine development goals.
- Creating all game art and adding animation and VFX to visually reinforce gameplay and story
With our limited team and schedule, we worked to keep gameplay tight and to the point, emphasizing polish over addition to create a quality game while maintaining scope. That said, we certainly had ideas on how the systems and world we created could be expanded upon, developed and integrated into more complex, involving experiences. Perhaps someday Spencer and I will return to these ideas, building out an arsenal of flare types or creating the Darkness that Eats. Until then, I am proud of this pit that I dug, and of the wonderful worm that writhes within.
Content Warning: Fantasy violence