Week two of Parasite was about refining player movement, polishing off a prototype level, implementing an active ragdoll, and packing more assets into our lovely backgrounds. For the final week of our prototype production, we were focused on making a pitch video. This involved the deployment of quite a bit of smoke and the installation of a few mirrors, but mostly we were able to use actual gameplay footage, which was gratifying.
This prototype came together well, then. I think this is mainly because the gameplay was well defined from the get-go. With Magical Spell Masters, we ended up with an outline of the mechanics—and core systems in place to back them up—but we definitely haven’t found the fun. We don’t have a clear idea of where we’ll find it either so, if that project does advance into major production, we’ll need to spend more time figuring that out.
But Parasite? I feel like this game knows what it wants to be. We also have a clearer idea of where we can take things in terms of tone and narrative, and what sort of extra systems we might build to support that. We’re ready to run, in other words, and I’d be more than happy to stick with it for another few months.
The big things I’d like to expand upon? I want to really flesh out the tone, and in my head that means leaning into the humour and silliness. Our concept art is more than a little Ape Out, and that game provides a solid template for not taking itself too seriously. I’d say we’ll want to incline a little on the sillier side of the spectrum. Ape Out has a stark brutality to it. It feels violent, due in no small part to the delightfully clamorous soundtrack but also to the precise, arcade controls.
Parasite doesn’t have those controls. It won’t ever have those controls—the focus on physics and swinging prevents it. So Parasite won’t have that sort of music either. I’m certain of it. During week two, I sketched out some music over a section of the demo level:
For a rough musical sketch, this is okay. It fits in some ways. The tempo and rhythmic phrasing feel about right to me. The ambient, atmospheric pad work is a little drab, but it does the job.
But there’s potential in something less serious. I mean, look at the featured image of this blog post. It could be a motivational poster. “Well, shit,” he seems to be saying. “What are ya’ gonna do?” In my head, I hear slow jazz drums, sparse and punchy P-bass, and lazy funk guitar. Or maybe something upbeat and wild, capturing the joy of being a swinging tentacle-person-thing. After all: what are ya’ gonna do when a tentacle bursts from your gut?
Just roll with it, man.
So that’s aesthetics. Nothing too meaty there for a programmer (save for one who likes getting side-tracked by music composition). But my time spent on Magical Spell Masters has given me ideas and technical insights into game event systems. In that project, it’s all UI events and animations. But in Parasite, I’d love to implement something more focused on tone and narrative.
I’d love to really author these levels—to define moments where the music, sound effects, visual effects, and camera work punctuate specific moments. We don’t know what those moments are yet. In the video above, I like how the musical cues unfold as the player exits the containment chamber. It’d be lovely to have the game’s title appear behind the player as they fall down that pit. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.
So as a prototype, Parasite was a success all round. We proved the viability of the core movement and traversal mechanics, we got a sense of what they demanded of our level designs, and our artists came up with a nifty art style that has helped guide conversations about the tonal direction in which we’d like to take this. As for programming, we see where the challenges and opportunities lie, and this should give us a lot to go on when we’re putting together our backlog for major production.