ⓘ OVERVIEW

Heat of the Moment is an intense, fast-paced game where you must make quick decisions to escape a burning house. As you pass through scenes, you will find items that open up new options and encounter characters like the arsonist and the assassin.

Each run will result in one of 21 possible endings. The game is highly replayable and I encourage replaying it many times to see how many different endings you can get. It also features a cross-game storyline unlocking new items, characters, scenes, and endings.

👁 RECEPTION

This project earned a 1st mark for its nonlinear story (BSc Interactive Media, University of York), item management puzzles, and scene parsing system facilitating modding. It won the Audience Favorite Award at the 2022 University of York Interactive Media Showcase.

The game also got some coverage from itch.io YouTubers MrDreaming, Laudplays, and Levont.

⌨ DEVELOPMENT

This was a 1st year university project developed over the course of 3 months in Processing 4. It was primarily inspired by early dungeon crawlers, Ape Out's art style, and nonlinear narrative in games like Katana ZERO.

This game loads scenes from a text file containing info about the background image, options, and when different characters will be in that area.

Scene

One goal of this system was to allow players to add more content if they choose to. You can easily add new areas, items, and endings (there's also a README that explains how). Fun fact: you can technically obtain any PNG in the game files as an item!

I modelled and rendered the scenes in Blender, then downscaled the renders to create pseudo-pixel art. I used Aseprite to create the characters and items and Logic Pro for the sound effects. I used effects like shaking/flashing text, zoom-in on the background and the Assassin, and growing timers to make the game intense and to provoke quick decision making.