Odyssey
Odyssey is a 2D adventure shooter with a focus on combat and world building. You play as a space mercenary trying to get by in an uncaring universe. Your jobs start of simple but get more and more challenging both in difficulty and in morality. Fight your way through factories, abandoned space ships, and more in this fast paced adventure!
Play the demo here:
https://mysticwonder.itch.io/odyssey
Odyssey’s primary mechanic is a shield and energy system that enables fast paced position heavy combat. In combat you are given a force field that is powered by a battery. As you take damage your forcefield gets weaker and weaker before finally breaking. If your forcefield is broken you will start to take actual damage and will die rather quickly.
The catch to the system is that the battery that is powering your force-field is the same battery that powers your weapons and your shots. This means as you shoot your weapon, you deplete your battery and precious charge for your force-field.
Additionally a number of enemies can be rushed and disarmed before they get a chance to arm themselves, effectively ending combat with them and allowing you to pick up their weapon. To accomplish this, the player must be up close and personal, which will often put themselves in danger if they’re not careful.
It is this call and response based combat of shooting, covering, and disarming that powers Odysseys combat.
History:
Odyssey is a passion project that I've been working on since the Summer of 2016. After working on Project: Grim for so long I quickly started working on prototypes for a new fast paced adventure game.
After several prototypes, a number of redesigns, restarts, and resolutions I finally settled on an art style, game-play, and story. Shortly after I landed a Co-Op, required for me to graduate. This was a bit of a setback as I now had to balance working a full time job while developing the game in my free time.
At this time I reached out to several students and formed a small team of four to help bring the game to completion.
The team worked extremely hard and in the Spring of 2018 our efforts came to fruition in the form of the New York State Game Dev Challenge where we placed second in the student category. It was such an exciting moment for the whole team as I entered the final stretch of my college career.
After college ended, the team struggled to continue developing on the game without funding. The students on the team found it difficult to justify spending co-op and internship time working on a project that might never turn into something professional. The graduates also found it difficult, because student games don't pay rent.
Eventually I was hired by Kingsisle Entertainment and Odyssey fell by the wayside. Half a year later, we made it official and Odyssey officially ceased development.
I'm extremely proud of what the team accomplished and were I to go back I'd do it all again. The future of the game is uncertain for sure, but I would one day like to revisit the idea that set me on this wild and crazy adventure.
As for now however, Odyssey was a fun student game that kick-started my career and for that I'm greatful.
