Hello IndieDB comunity!
We already show you the narrative and the art-style of Caracazo, but we didn't show jet something equally important: The gameplay!
Caracazo will be a top-down stealth game with a bit of puzzles, this is the basis of the gameplay of the game. From this base we quickly started to take reference in Unmetal.
Unmetal is a stealth game deeply inspired by the first Metal Gear game, but refines the formula of this game a little more and experiments with it by putting the player in absurd situations. This originality in experimenting with stealth mechanics was what led us to use Unmetal as the main reference.
What most visibly inspires us about Unmetal would be its level design and, speaking more directly of its mechanics, the mechanic of hiding behind cover to be able to plan your next actions.
Image 1: Hiding mechanic in Unmetal: the player is staring at the red circle.
Image 2: When the player approaches a cover, like that wall, he hides putting his back against the cover, making him less visible to the enemies around.
However, in Caracazo, the character you control does not carry any weapon to defend himself and the stealth mechanics are reduced to avoiding all dangers, for this reason being seen by enemies is more crucial than ever and almost always means immediate defeat. For this reason we decided that the cone of vision of the enemies will be visible just like in games like Serial Cleaner.
Image 3: Cone of Vision mechanic in Serial Cleaner: the player is at the left of the blue circle and the enemy is on the right. The enemy has a cone that defines what he sees. When a big object like the Van is in front of him the cone of vision doesn't transpose it. You can use those objects as covers.
Image 4: When the player enters in the cone of vision or the enemy changes the places where he is looking at, the player is detected and the enemy starts to follow him.
As for the puzzles, we believe that a good way to add variety to the gameplay when you have no way to defend yourself is by putting small puzzles in certain sections, moving covers on the stage while they don't see you so you can use them later, or moving obstacles that block your path.
For these puzzles we have been testing several games as a reference for the level design, one of the most important was Akurra.
Image 5: Moving boxes in Akurra: the player is inside the red circle and is staring at a box.
Image 6: When he tries to walk inside the place where the box is placed, the player automatically pushes the box. You can’t pick the box and pull it.
So at the moment these are the main mechanics that are shaping Caracazo's gameplay. Hiding behind the walls to hide from the enemy's vision and analyze his patterns, taking advantage of his distractions to move the objects on the level and condition the stage in your favor to pass without being seen.
Outside of this, we're thinking of also introducing lighting as an important gameplay factor, but we'll talk about that in future articles.
We hope u enjoy our today's article, see you soon!
Have a nice week and stay safe!
