Pixel Isometric Retro game (Develops into my final Idea)

Thought of using the of Retro Media & photography initial idea and develop it however didn’t know what to make of it. Thought of finding a way to integrate both my Survival knowledge from my research and 80s media my concept and survival maybe I would be able to combine them to create a unique concept rather than focusing on a singular niche, creating a game where the main objective is to shoot a film while having to go through terrifying natural disasters. Which led me to research film disasters. The Apocalypse Now disastrous shoot​.A week before production the lead with the filmmaker which led to him reaping up the four year contract and leaving. During the start of the production a typhoon destroyed most of the movie set leading to many of the crew flying back to the states and the new lead actor having not even red the script and not in shape for the role the crew had to change the script as the days went, shooting in darkness to hide his figure and letting him talk instead him ramble on on camera not even saying the lines. Not including a real life civil war happening at the time Philippines needing to give away the helicopters mid shoot for the government. In the tropical weather disease, drugs and alcohol were used commonly on set which security guards even had to be deployed after the salary was stolen. Actors had to be filmed separately due to disputes. They even used real dead bodies when filming the temple scenes and the main actor having a heart attack needing to crawl to the nearest village for help.​

From the natural disasters, addictions, breakdowns and crew rivalry that happened in Apocalypse’s Now production prove that a game could be made just about that a mess. Decided to combine that with my semester one year 2 concept vision a pixel top down game in the similar aesthetic style to Hotline Miami and The Pokémon Franchise. With Halloween coming-up soon led me to watch Scream (1996), the film mimics and laughs at the conventional slasher plots and killers with a mix of mystery horror and comedy. Through the killer tripping-up all the time, overexaggerated killing motions and a cast who take on a more comedic role than anything scary. This movie led me to watch a marathon of Slasher films from the 20th Century, like A nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th, Halloween, Psycho and The Shinning (not entirely a slasher film).

Watching them began my ideation process in coming-up with my final idea seen in my Project Proposal and lower down in this Post, I wanted to create a survival horror game based of the niche slashers with my unique spin on it, with inspiration from the “Production Hell” seen in Apocalypse Now.

Looking to make my game in an isometric Point of View using Piskel to learn to draw in isometric perspective. The pixel art-style I believe is simpler to learn in the short frame of time I have to create a game but also aligns with my aesthetic choice I want to create for my game as it gives that Arcady 80s look that I want for my game as well.

Learning to draw in Isometric

Research:

Atmosphere, similar lighting and style

Draft of protagonist character model

Added details, character art clothing choice, the one simple red clothing which ended up keeping the pair match. Wanted to go for a pixel look reminding me of Dead Aheadz. Where the eyes do not show, instead of having an outline I wanted to create mine without to blend slightly with the environment for aesthetics reasons and what I had in mind.

Dead Aheadz: Zombie Warfare

The shadow on the character’s eyes and simple style outfit was drawn inspiration from Dead Aheadz however the lack of outline and colour scheme was more aimed at futuristic neo settings I want my game to have.

The map

In the abandoned town, the aim of the victim is to get to a phone booth around the town and call the police, which they should survive for a few minutes or get a car and drive. The game could be accessible to play in multiple consoles.

Survival aspects

My character having trying to and survive a movie shoot, with hiding from a serial killer on the run at the same time.

Personal experience in being a Production Assistant in an indie film. Proved long hours of work from 5am-8pm and being treated harshly in the work place with the tough environment, led me to create the fictional killer as almost rushing the player into doing chores, inspired through my experiences.

Visuals

From the description what I have in mind is a pixelated look of Friday the 13th.

Friday The 13th: The Game

From the map idea and win victory scenario for the survivals the game idea is too similar I believe to the concept of Friday The 13th the game, which l believe is one of the best games with doing justice to the classic slasher genre.

Which made me think of a possible solution:

	1	2	3
Variation of ideas	Instead of one playing the killer and one the Victim maybe it would be a single player game playing as a slasher killer killing Npc’s around the vibe of a suburban town.	Playing as a survivor in multiple slasher scenarios with different maps and stories. typical horror genre needing to solve puzzles and challenges to escape the killer.	Playing as a monster trying to escape the humans, needing to rely on stealth tricks and puzzles to get away.

Idea number 1: what I had in mind

Dad n’ Me gameplay aspects

You play as a bully beating up children, people and bullies in a side scrolling cartoony, retro visuals. Playing the game again brought back memories with having fun addictive combat and almost endless maps with different cartoony funny enemy types.

While coming-up with different ideas for my game I wondered where it would be set. 80s neon like aesthetics.

what would be my game’s setting’s:

Settings	Why
The typical American rural town which can be seen in most 80s slasher films.	A direct influential from the slasher genre, could aim for classic slasher fans audience or reintroduce the 80s America nostalgias A beautiful rural town is a settings that is appealing with landscapes. Familiar with it through the movies and games that already exist.
However to create a nostalgia feel maybe take from my personal experiences growing up in Israel and going through adolescence in London.	Maybe modern time London slasher could create a more personalised experience to the player, unique as games today rarely take on a modern take of London or England in general. However could be less believable that a murderer could be loss with no Police or traffic in modern day London. Maybe rural life in the UK. How would I be able to portray England in an interesting way, the grey sky, bad weather, modern England culture and architecture. Resembles my town could be to the Rural town I know best Winchester. The nostalgia America has through cinema and games, like life is strange and coming of age films Lady Bird changed with the add of a killer. Which that’s what slasher 80s classic do. Combine a coming of age film with plot twists, gore and supernatural elements and tension.
The snowy peaks and mountain range	Having seen the beautiful landscapes of France mountains and my research including the highest peaks on the planet might create a unique scenario where the player has to combine climbing with escaping a killer. Games like Until Dawn and The Long Dark have those settings of which also could portray the loneliness feel I want my game to have.

Created a Roblox prototype on Roblox’s Engine, wasn’t sure what the surroundings should be like, played around with using different assets from the library with placement and changing colours to create a really simple messy look of my game’s aesthetics for getting a better understanding of how it might be.

This is a piece composed on Abelton Live, the synth and music fits the horror genre combined with the classic 80s synth sounds.

To create it I wanted a synth instrument to take the main melody through combining and adjusting two instruments together it made the unique sound heard from 00:57 onwards, with mixing live, the melody I managed to adjust between it and keep that melody interesting by changing the parameters. Creating the piano piece at the start with influence from the Halloween and Dead silence music with adding backing creepy sounds in the background. After creating the melodies all I needed to do was play around and added sound effects and my own vocals to it. Changed the pitch and used reverb to create the creepy breathing before the chorus.

The Midi Keyboard I have:

Software’s I used:

Influences

Looking up 2D isometric game making tutorial /3D and a 3D with 2D sprites.

Feedback

Having talked to Jordan about my initial idea he said I should expand and not go too ambitious. Also he pointed out creating the isometric settings could be done both in a 2D environment but he recommended in trying out in 3D environment because of creating the sprites instead from an easier perspective and could bring unique benefits when looking at backing backgrounds and is not limited by using pixilated art-style.

Idea to create a 3D prototype with 2D sprites

The retro sky I used in the Roblox engine ended up really liking it and using a similar colour in my prototype, below.

Creating the Retro feel background with references to my presentation.

Conversation with Adam and development of my idea

Overthinking is a big issue I have and Adam helped me realise that.

For the past couple of weeks I tried to think of a crazy and unique mechanic and over-ambitious of visuals for my game to explain with it might be a good game, having thought of no mechanics and just visualising the game in my head and being unable to explain the gameplay led me to wonder if I actually have an idea for how my game would play out however not idea for the mechanic popped up.

However needing to keep my idea simple and prioritise the importance of needing to find mechanics around my game rather than playing with settings and narrative which I can decide in a later stage.

Putting myself in the Player’s shoes. After having a talk with Adam on Monday it helped create a simple but interesting mechanic.

Survival aspect

The player has to keep tabs on their nutrition tab so it would not run out by looting the surroundings of the town. Meanwhile their objective is to find materials hidden and procedurally generated so finding them is important. Meanwhile the player would have to avoid monsters that lurk around the map and rooms through the hiding mechanic.

Draft mechanic idea what I want my game to include:

• Looting
• Hiding
• Running
• Crafting

The player would need to craft something to allow them to flee from the town resulting in a winning condition.

Controller movement settings

Creating an isometric perspective movement script with YouTube guidance tutorial:

Final Script

Controller settings playtesting with a ps5 controller movement trial

Importing my Sprites from Aseprite into my character

Research

Researching games genre and aesthetics similar to my idea, wanting to create an aesthetic game while maintaining an interesting gameplay mechanic to make my game a complete playable and fun game proved difficult so looking at a third year students pixelated game could be a good start in seeing what the scope of my game could be.

Portage, an itch.io game made by Winchester School of Art students

The synth soundtrack and ambient sounds with the you the player able to interact with the environment so seamlessly, how the player is able to move objects and puzzle solve just by trying with no specific instructions and guide on what to do.

I really liked it especially the art and animations, would love to use environment art inspired by this.

The feedback from Week 7 game idea proved useful as I played Overland.

A strategic, top down

Similar art, angle and aesthetics to what game in mind

Installing 2D Aseprite Importer on Unity to include my 2D concept art.

Jade Carter

Learning a lot in Jade Carter’s lecture presentation, through the importance of deadlines weekly tasks and the overall scope and strategy in making a game without wasting too much time on less important aspects, having the lecture with guest speaker Jade Carter a Producer in Studio Gobo Ltd.

I explained to Jade my game idea which was something like mentioned below:

Visuals​

A town like the one in Stranger Things, Hawkins​ with visual art-style like Fretless & Hotline Miami​ with refences to 80s & modern media​:

A town like the one in Stranger Things, Hawkins

With visual art-style like Fretless

& Hotline Miami

Lighting and atmosphere like Killer Frequency

Gameplay mechanics:​

• Scavenge. Travel across the town and find food and materials​
• Survive. Keep your nutrition tab up and hide from creatures that lurk in buildings who are wearing neo lit masks​
• Explore. See different places and discover outlined environmental items to search for food and materials​
• Craft. Craft the ultimate weaponed to get out of the place scattered around the map in each building with the creatures​
• Stealth. Hide from the creatures who lurk in the dark like in buildings and out at night cycle​

Genre:​

Slasher like thriller / eerie game​, Retro stylised​

Narrative:

You, a cinematographer in the 80s shooting a movie in an isolated town, the next morning you find yourself alone with the filmcrew gone, the movie you were shooting became a reality as you find yourself stuck with walls surrounding the town and all-electricity cut out you have to escape from the neo masked killers before you starve or murdered. ​

I could expand on the plot but right now keeping it simple without over complication.

Inya’s feedback,

A good interesting idea which I responded with believing it is an over-scope.

She mentioned you could prioritise the key components the game should have and what mechanics you adjust when production begins.

Explaining my game for the time with ideas for how the gameplay would play out proved extremely useful for the first time having a complete idea before talking made me have a way clearer vision of what my game could look like and play out in addition I began prioritising what I need to show for Monday’s presentation.

Deciding for Monday I should include in my prototype more aesthetic elements so I might showcase my vision more clearly for music students as my game’s aesthetics is an important component in my game. I would want to include to give the students a bigger idea of my game and how it would look like. Having developed it I wanted to show what I enjoy doing which are the sprites and overall look of the game.

Finding out the easiest and fastest way to my sprites with the 3D space could be easier if I created a flat sprite and ‘glue onto the floor instead of previously trying to create a 2D backdrop.

Using my artwork on Aseprite components and creating the sprites of them.

Art work:

My sprites: For the level

Creating Visual nodes for a Shader

I used this video as a reference but adjusted it to personalise it for my prototype. Here is the video I used:

Changing the values to create different textures

The one I chose to keep.

Importing wood texture on the asset store, once I managed to use the pixelized shader on the visuals I could use normal materials which would automatically suit the game’s aesthetics using The Unity Store to find assets for my game.

However all materials and objects showed up pink,

Trying to figure out why looked at a video that explained due to the Rendered Pipeline being changed, (for creating my shader for the pixelated look) led me to be only able to download very few assets and having to give up on the assets I found.

However in actuality following this YouTube tutorial I was able to change the shader of the material to Universal Render Pipeline / lite and for it to be compatible with my game.

Adding a point light and assets creating a cool environment for my game, through using the assets I now learned to texture .

Adjusting the camera angle, adding assets and introducing light to the lamps and changing materials and textures of objects.

Game view

Adding animation sprites

Edited my sprite and made a standstill character animation, wanted to create it slightly exaggerated with the hair blowing and clothing moving to fit my game’s pixelated theme.

Importing it onto Unity and adding music.

Style of music I want in my game

The soundtrack I want to have for my game, soundtracks of 80s horror movies are great however I would want a more of a variety of soundtrack combined with a unique way and ambient sounds and vocals. Some taking the attention of the player. Doesn’t have to be a direct influence from the 80s, and a mixture of variety of genres is great, if you have any songs that would want to put in my game would be great I wanted to have an Indie song in there. The use of creepy vocals or background would be cool like in “For the damaged coda” and “Bad things”, Cults, and the entire of Life is Strange soundtrack, Spring breakers is good the original Blade Runner and Far cry 5 go creative. I’ll add more songs to my Spotify playlist. Even a guitar solo would be cool.​

Wanting to create an indie sounding soundtrack for my game.

Music producing

After hearing a AI generated song on an Instagram reel I thought it’ll be fun to try it out for myself. Selecting the genre I want ‘indie’ and having fretless bass guitar with calming vocals it generated three noticeably bad songs, however the fourth one included cool note sequence bass riff at the start of the song. It was more the note sequence that I think sound good.

Attempting to recreate the rift, Using my midi keyboard to create an almost realistic sounding guitar proved difficult and required much editing and tweaking but still came out bland. Which led me to asking my brother, who plays the guitar into playing that short riff notes on his guitar.

Using a chord finder for the riff

The final recording session results.

A 1:51 min guitar playing of the same riff which I could use and play around with on Abelton

The vocals I have in mind for the song is something similar to the Nine Inch vocals heard in ‘Hurt’, a sound close to whispering which I can use a simple headphones to do so.

Presentation feedback on the game idea:

Videos I used for reference, by keeping it simplistic with similar colour scheme and purposely leaving the background transparent due to importing it into Unity style and blending in with my current retro colours.

Referring back to Portage itch.io game I wanted to create a wood land pixel background like the one seen from the game. Background artwork an addition to the existing prototype background.

The video’s advice was super helpful in expanding my idea, adding on what my gameplay could be through looking at existing game’s ideas that mean something to me through their nostalgia and gameplay that I go back similar genres, instead of searching for something super unique.

A wave game with serial killers chasing you and you need to set up traps and defences to protect yourself. You could head back to base and refresh the days as it gets harder and harder. Like in Plants Vs zombies you get stronger defenders.

Maybe for the gameplay I could use the nostalgic Dungeon Defender game I used to love as a child and change it to the Retro and neo theme I love.

Inspirations and Tower Defence games I have previously played that I could use for my game, review.

• Dungeon Defenders, the building traps and being able to walk in that environments to place them is what Dungeon defenders did unique back in 2011.

• Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare a pixel 2D side scroller where units are spawned and meant to destroy road blocks while fighting through zombies and requiring smart use of resources and timing.

• Orcs must Die 3!! The also 3rd person tower defence game where the player can choose to place traps and towers with a number on the keyboard.

Slack group asking for advice on what route I should take a 2.5D isometric game in 3D unity or a simpler 2D game

“Wanting to make it a tower defence game, following Youtube tutorials in 3D but planning to use keep it in the isometric perspective. With movement like in dungeon defenders where you the player can walk around and place minions to shoot at the enemies who would damage a gate and you’ll need to protect it, similar as well to Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare. Wanted to ask for your opinions but I really like that kind of genre, hope it’s doable and if not I could do it in 2D.”

Decided to try out the 2.5D approach as my game idea’s retro and environmental story telling would be better told in the 2.5 D environment, still wanting to keep the isometric perspective and directional movement.

The Defences

Thinking of interesting ways to place defenders in my game, initially having the idea to use stand still soldiers and units the player can place to defend the gate, like from Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare and in orcs must die archers. However they would just be badly designed soldiers that would look funny and wouldn’t make sense why they cannot move. However an idea came to me, that what if the player can deploy a black substance that all defending structures would be made from it a Black slimy substance used to place in the game, easy for the player to notice which troops they’ve placed and which are the enemies. Black slime with purple / pink hue to them. With an influence from the Luffy Snake man Gear 4’s hands.

Even though I haven’t watched one Piece I saw an add for a mobile game featuring the protagonist’s Gear 4 form which I thought his hands colours shininess to them look really captivating for the eyes and thought the shading and the almost Venom Marvel character sludge looked really cool when day dreaming a year ago about what my venom character would look like.

Walking around a mysterious town and settings up defences and supplying food through scavenging the town to keep it safe from creepy monsters masked killers hordes like from 28 days. The objective is to protect your town gates from the hordes and gathering resources fallen by enemies or scavenged through a town (would make the small town if there’s time). Place supernatural creatures to defend from the horde that would look like black slime with each having a unique feature about them some range, some close combat some act as a wall. The slimy substance that your character could control. Your character could possess this power to place slimy creatures and control them to their will, can add cool strategy to my game. placing down slimy creatures to defend the gate meanwhile allowed to roam in a town to gather materials between rounds. (Cool idea I like this). From Purge like monsters who would attempt to destroy the town.

Thinking about reworking my character to fit my theme better, maybe more generic look.

I feel like the creepy vibe could be fitting a character like Ness and Lucas from Earthbound and Undertale. The colours and outfit style fit could fit my theme and go for generic relatable child character. I really like the striped t-shirt they have with the bright neo art. I could go this style of shirt and trousers instead of the current design.

Or

A creepy little girl

Could be unique playing as a character usually portraying a bad omen in horror films.

Not many games do allow you to play that creepy character, games that include

League of Legends, Annie & Little Nightmares where the protagonist becomes a villain becomes a creepy boss in the second game.

More specific character look in mind.

Annie in Wonderland skin League of Legends & Nightmare on Elm Street

Movement of Annie in League of Legends holding on to the teddy bear and jogging I believe manages to portray the creepy girl really well and the outfits from Nightmare on Elm street and the role of the creepy girls throughout the horror cinema can help me achieve that slight creepiness in my game.

The story of my game is of less important as I have a clear gameplay mechanic for the game.

Enemies inspiration

Masked barbaric killers who sprint (slightly slowly) towards the gate to destroy it for their leaders. Squashy, easy and fun to kill gets one / two shot.

Reference of what I had in mind:

Start of the game

The player begins with the gate open before the first round and a dead enemy corpse laying outside which would contain enough for the player to be able to construct a defender. Their would be at least three different types of defender types, the ranger, the melee and the human shield.

Types of defends

The ranger would be able to be placed inside the gate where he can shoot between the bars at enemies.

The melee would be able to melee opponents passing by

The human shield acts like a line of defence where an enemy facing it would need to destroy it to get to the gate.

Character ability shoots a slimy boulder like a catapult at the enemies where it would explode. Costs slime

The player would need to be in-range to place them, and all of them slowly loose HP during the rounds before exploding and dealing area damage.

If I would continue the game after university or have extra time I would create more resources the player can pick-up and a town for them to explore

My game’s current state for the project proposal (changes in mechanic and story)

You the player need to defend the gate to your town. A character with supernatural abilities that allow you to harness blood to your loyal slimy creations.

Goal / win condition: Beat the ~15-25 waves of cult hoards aiming to destroy the town. Use strategic placement of your creations to massacre the cults and raise your town to victory. In the neon-80s style tower defence game

Lose condition: The enemies destroy your gate and enter the town.

My game’s name

From Project pixel isometric slasher game to Referencing Frankstein’s quote of It’s Alive and Apocalypse Now’s shooting disaster, led me to coming up with The Film’s Alive. Shifting from that story into a tower defence game led me to think if on the Steam page it would look good and fitting with my game’s characteristics. My game’s genre, horror, thriller and comedic and action. The phrase Oh The horror! popped up in my head which led me to think what could a both comedic and slightly creepy name be.

Thinking of names:

• “The Bloody Thing Lives”: This name I thought what could the barbaric cult members say about the player’s defences and a more comedic name for my game.
• “The Slimy Thing’s Alive?!”: The reaction I believe the cult member would have when fighting your defences.
• “Strange-vill”: Like stranger things, however could be too similar for the Sims 4 Strangeville pack.
• “Oh its Alive”: Also comedic but feels too generic could be better used about a game of an immortal being unable to die.
• “The Horror Lives”: The most dramatic and creepy out of the rest

Name wise I thought maybe com

In relation to my ideation process Pixel Isometric game

Wanted to create fluid movement for my character while this video helped to create a foundation.

Tower Defence Game Tutorial series- YouTube

Chose a good starting point in creating my game, with the assistance of Ross, Gemini and making adjustments to the code.

19/02/2026

AI Combat system sheet

Priority	Action	Logic
1. Reaction	Stun/Knockback	If hit by a heavy attack, interrupt current action and enter Stun state.
2. Engagement	Attack	If an enemy is within AttackRange, stop moving and enter Attack state.
3. Detection	Target Lock	If an enemy is within DetectionRange (but not yet in attack range), move toward them.
4. Objective	Move Right/Left	If no enemies are detected, move toward the primary goal (the Barricade or the Bus).

Cursor’s response to creating a Enemy Combat script, the message I sent: “This is my code for the AI I have in my game “using UnityEngine;

public class AIMovement : MonoBehaviour

{

private UnityEngine.AI.NavMeshAgent agent;

private void Start()

{

agent = GetComponent<UnityEngine.AI.NavMeshAgent>();

}

private void Update()

{

agent.SetDestination(GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag(“Target”).transform.position);

}

}” I want to give that AI a tower Defence style gameplay combat where objects I place with a “Obstacle” Tag override the “Target” tag and lead them to pause and attack them, call it Enemy Combat, C# script creating the game on Unity. The style relies on a horizontal movement priority where units only stop moving toward the objective if an “Obstacle” Tag enters their detection range before they reach their “Target””. Got a working code, created two scripts one for health of the “Obstacles” Tagged and the other an Enemy Combat system that deals an adjustable damage to the obstacle which overrides the NavMesh instructions to the “Target” tagged objects exactly what I wanted.

Video showcasing me integrating my existing code into Cursor and giving him feedback and asking for slight improvements in my code, which before could only move the Build Mode in one direction and had a mesh and rigid body.

Finishing touches:

Melee monster defence creation

Initial art idea:

Inspirations from The Chomper from Plants Vs Zombies to Venom mix

Started making the attack animation for it, which I extremely liked the concept of it ended up changing the look of the creature to looking more grotesque and Lovecraftian abomination.

UI:

Overlapped two open source fonts on top of each other, and programmed to open up when Esc is pressed.

At: https://fontmeme.com/hotline-miami-font/

After the wave is to completion (meaning all enemies die and are spawned from the current wave) make then the gate passable, until the next wave begins (E is pressed in the Lever Platform. With this logic there would be two sections, the planning phase with the gate open (after wave is completion) and the wave phase, begins once the player Lever Platform starts with a break timer preventing the player from spamming E straight after wave ends (Wave ends = to Wave completion),10 seconds

Playing with lighting and implementing my art

The player would have a choice if to look in the Controls panel and learn the defences and what they do or try to figure it out themselves the Controls panel is accessible in both the Main Menu and in game