Stranded

Overview:

In Stranded, the player awakes on a deserted island surrounded by strange jelly monsters rising from beneath the waters. With nothing but a watchtower sending an SOS signal, the player must defeat the monsters to defend the tower long enough to escape.

Gameplay Mechanics:

• Aiming -  the game uses a first-person perspective. Move the mouse to aim the player and use the left mouse button to shoot.
• Ammo -  the game features two types of ammo, Light and Heavy. Light ammo deals 1 damage point and can be fired repeatedly, while Heavy ammo deals 2 damage points, but requires a 3-second cooldown period. Press 'Spacebar' to swap between ammo types.
• Game Modes -  the game features two different modes to play in. In "Stranded" mode, the goal is to defend the watchtower, defeating enemies to construct new towers. In "Endless" mode, the goal is simply to destroy as many enemies as possible before the player loses all of their health.
• Towers - in "Stranded" mode, the player can construct new towers to replace any that have been destroyed. To create a new tower, the player must defeat 5 enemies, at which point they can press 'E' to construct a new tower at their location. The new tower must be a certain distance away from all other towers to be constructed successfully.

Development Note:

Stranded originally started out as a project for my college Game Programming course. As such, the scripting and overall level design are completely original.

The biggest challenge in making this game was figuring out how to program the enemy AI. Originally, once each new enemy spawned, it would immediately target a tower, or if there were no towers, would stand in place. I thought it would look much nicer and be easier on the player if each enemy rose in the air before targeting, giving the player time to react. Also, I added a script to rotate all enemies around the island when there are no targets so that the game no longer feels like it abruptly stops.