Download Drift
Drift is a top-down shooter that disintegrates into an interactive narrative about the bleakness of space and death.
Engine
– Zero Engine
– Scripted in Python
Duties
– All art/game design
– All code
Time
– 3 days
Drift was a quick, experimental narrative game I made in less than a week at DigiPen. The game presents itself as a top-down shooter but quickly dissolves into a few, short collection of interactions that decide the fate of a fictional character. The quick turnaround time for the game was heavily owed to the recycling of art assets from another project I made.
The emphasis throughout the game is on dialogue, character development, and narrative. The script portrays the main character experiencing a tragedy, and the player can only watch as the character faces death alone.
There are three choices in the game presented as the three stages of facing death: denial, desperation, and acceptance (or mercy, if you choose not to project yourself into the main character).
The character realizes his ship is about to enter a dangerous junk field full of magnetic debris. His ship is too big and slow to maneuver successfully.
- For denial, you have two options (last stand or flee) once you or the character realizes the fate at hand. In the end, neither of them are enough to escape your fate.
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- Last stand: All energy to weapons in order to destroy the junk
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- Flee: All energy to thrusters to escape the junk
- Your initial plan has failed. For desperation, you have two more options (hope or acceptance).
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- Hope: Reserve oxygen to emergency thrusters
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- Acceptance: Do nothing
If you choose to hope, then you deplete your remaining time and end with the dark ending. The character suffocates slowly and is full of regret.
If you choose to accept your fate, then you self-destruct and end with the white ending. The character comes to terms with his fate and absolves his regrets.
