Psychotripik
Escape the the rat race and awaken to the true reality. Earn cash by any means necessary to enter the tripiks, a ‘realm’ only accessible by the mysterious substance known as Glint. It's a pretty quick ride, but once it’s over, it will change your life… for better or for worse.
Psychotripik is the first project I am creating that would be a premium product I'd be happy to sell on marketplaces. This game is my spearhead into the indie development scene, creating a game that I not only have fun developing, but would have an actual interest in playing as well. Its unique as there aren't many or if really any games that have a similar gameplay loop and mechanics all combined into a singular game.
In psychotripik, there are 2 main areas of gameplay, each with different mechanics and purposes. There's reality, where you go about your day-to-day life, and then there's the tripiks.
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In reality, your gameplay consists of various different ways of obtaining money. Whether that's through work or crime. Money is important, so you're gonna want a lot of it. But thats not all you can meet new interesting people and talking to them, getting to know them and their problems. Or exploring the city and surrounding forest, who knows what you'll find.
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In the tripiks there's... well its indescribable. Its these weird worlds, entities, effects, powers, it's hard to believe it's all in your head. It is all in your head right? The tripiks are all about exploration, during your high you're introduced to all manners of creatures, both friendly and aggressive. On top of that a world of whimsy is ready to be explored, with items and powers that somehow translate into reality
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At it's core, Psychotripik is a game prioritising fun, with a progression loop that incentivises exploration and interaction.
Whats currently implemented?
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Object interaction system (pick up, hold objects)
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Basic inventory
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Power system
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Drugs and tripiks
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Dialogue system
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Save system
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Some art assets for tripiks
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(Partly) multiplayer mechanics
Soon to be implemented?
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Save system
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Advanced inventory system
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Quest system
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NPC AI framework
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Save system
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Finish Multiplayer Functionality
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Overhaul reality
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Remaining art assets
What makes this game unique?
The unique selling point of this game is the drug/tripiks system. Being able to take a drug that then allows you to travel to different realm that has its own unique features and aspects all in a multiplayer setting hasnt been done before, not all together. Building on knowledge from other games and extrapolating all the positive aspects and injecting it into this system creates an entertaining and interactive experience.
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In addition, blending this whole system with an deep compelling dialogue system on par with something like Disco Elysium allows for hilarious interactions between the player and NPCs, which also react to what you've seen and what you've done.
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Finally, the mix of art styles and assets being a complete juxtaposition, not only between the tripiks and reality, but also in areas of the tripiks themselves is something not seen in many games before. Going from realistic, unsaturated reality, to a hyper bright and colourful room in the tripiks, to then a pixelated and low poly area is something unique to experience and makes you want to explore and find out whats around the corner.
Whats the story? Whats the tripiks?
The narrative and overall tone of the game is very light, with comedy being the prime focus. We want people to laugh when playing the game, but there are elements of sadness and even horror throughout the game.
The main plot begins when you meet Crazy Rick whilst looking for some glint after it runs dry in the city. This is where it gets wild. Rick tells you about the suppression of humanity's innate super abilities through the water supply and the food we eat. And glint is not only a gate way to other realms, but can help awaken your innate abilities. Through missions in the tripiks and reality you attempt to destroy the government and establish a new society that embraces glint and human's natural super powers.
The whole main story sounds like some sort of conspiracy you'd expect of Reddit, and thats the point. Its meant to be absurd and funny, but in certain character dialogues, or worlds in tripiks you can encounter melancholic themes. Some worlds in the tripiks can even harbour some horrifying elements, like an enemy who's constantly stalking you, or the area being terrifying itself to explore.
Dialogue system
The dialogue system is an adaptive mechanic that can take into account multiple different context cues that affect responses, as well as start different quest or grant different items to the player. The whole system features player responses that may need a condition, such as have I spoken to this character before, or have I completed this mission?
It has voiced dialogue and an undertale style voice as well, where it's a repeated noise rather than actual lines of dialogue. It shows all vital information, such as speakers name and the whole text box.
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The dialogue system can also start events such as starting or advancing a quest, giving currency or items, and setting flags that allow the system to react based on what the player has said or done.
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It's a deep system that I will be taking into other projects that require such deep dialogue system as part of the game experience.
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(The UI isnt final and I will update once I get around to changing it)
Artwork and assets
All of the art work shown in this section is made by me. All the art in the tripiks is most probably going to be made by me or through a third party as the worlds in the tripiks are very specific and would not be covered by an asset pack.
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Most of the work is art and assets, but some of it is shader work and through changing post processing affects, or even changing some rendering and shading options inside the engine itself, such as changing the tone mapper for more realistic and cinematic lighting that makes objects look lest like plastic, getting rid of that "unreal engine" feel
How does it work?
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The dialogue system works through 2 primary assets, A data table, achieved through a combination of several blueprint structures, and a component class that communicates between the data table, and the UI widget.
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The Data table is organised through its row name/next node IDs. Each NPC can have a different Start node variable attached to them specifically, communicating to the component on which row is being referenced and showcasing it in the UI widget. Then, as long as a response has no conditions or the conditions have been fully met, the player can choose a response. Each response inside the data table contains a next node ID, which is the next desired dialogue you want the NPC to say. The response updates the current node id to the next node, and reloads the dialogue system, displaying the new dialogue and responses. This is a very brief description of what technically happens, but if youre interested I can provide a more detailed one, or even show you the entire back end of the system!
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Rationale
I'm making psychotripik in order to break into the indie game scene and so far its going great. I like the pace I'm working at, I'm enjoying the content I'm creating and the unique concept that I'm developing as its something that I myself find interesting.
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And in worst case scenario, this game would help me build new skills, such as the dialogue system. I haven't done anything like this before and its helping to develop new skills in areas that I am lacking in.
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Overall I'm happy with the project, its fun and I'm learning new things!