This is the first development update for teeth, a First Person 3D platformer. You play as a small robotic drone that has been deployed to explore the inner workings of TEETH, an artificially intelligent database inside a megacomputer the size of a city. After the computer was left quietly running for 250 years, you’re deployed into its hardware to uncover its secrets while its mechanical antivirus attempts to erase you from its system.
I want to talk about how the idea for the game came about, however you can skip to the next chapter if you want to just hear about the game.
At the start of my final year of university, I had to create a meaningful subject to depict for a portfolio piece. I created teeth as an idea for a theoretical game. My goal for that project was to create a concept for a game that was not only artistically but mechanically sound. I was interested in how an indie game’s art direction could be formulated when the mechanics and gameplay are also heavily considered as part of the development of an IP. After spending the first couple of months creating concept art, I wanted to see how my concepts could actually fit within a game world. One thing led to another and I ended up developing a small prototype for what the game could be. This awful prototype gave me the confidence to take the game further, after getting some positive reception to the game’s idea and concepts. During that year that I spent on the prototype and finishing my degree, I got slightly better at game development, with the help of a lovely group of peers on a similar path and the amazing skill building activity that are game jams. With what I know now I want to make teeth my first big project as a developer. The direction of the games industry currently, makes the work in most game studios sparse for artists. Instead of waiting around for an opportunity, I want to make something myself and see where it goes.
For the past couple of months I’ve spent time in the Godot engine making a new prototype from scratch. Here’s an introduction to what the project actually is.
tldr: I made a game in uni. Now I’m making it again but better.
Mechanics
teeth is a first person platformer, mostly inspired by games like Mirror’s Edge and some of the more movement-focused shooters, specifically Titanfall 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. So this was an interesting mechanical base, but I felt like it needed more, most of the movement shooters I know of feel too arena-based and I wanted to make something that could give the mechanics a twist. Metroidvania games have the player’s unlock their mechanics over the course of the game, allowing them to access areas that they couldn’t previously. I think it’s pretty interesting gameplay wise to combine this with a first-person platformer. I’ve played Metroid Prime a little bit in the past, but felt like it was too much of a rehash of classic metroid in a 3D world, as opposed to its own game. teeth will have a progressively unlocked set of movement abilities that let you get to new areas, however, instead of those abilities being focused on combat, they are focused on traversal. I think that could be really cool.
Art
Since working on this in school, I’ve worked and reworked the visual style of teeth several times. I won’t talk about the older styles unless I’m comparing it to one of the newer concepts, mostly cause I don’t find them very interesting.
teeth’s world is inspired by computers and the parts that make them. The environment combines the cubist geometry of brutalist architecture with the world of PCB’s, motherboards and sheets of dark metal.
If you have a look at the page the game here, you can see some of the concepts I’ve made so far.
Playtest
I’ve created a small playtest prototype, a set of 5 levels to test the movement controller and some of the assets I’ve modelled. I’ve had some close friends playtest it so far to give me feedback, and after some tweaks I’m posting it on here so I could potentially get some more eyes on the project.
https://jawds.itch.io/teeth-prototypes
Thanks for reading and I hope that the game interests you. If you have any feedback feel free to message me @jawds on discord.
Note: I really want to add the ability for people to comment on these pages, just to potentially get some feedback on the direction from people who read it on my website. Since comment engines cost money to host I won’t be able to do that currently, so as I said message me on discord or email me at jordan@memorydealer.net to give me feedback.