The Ascetic

The Ascetic is an adventure game where the player must navigate through old ruins filled with traps, puzzles, and rats to uncover the artifacts and secrets of time. The challenge-seeking protagonist must endure the trials of strength and intelligence in order to face the being she is searching for. 

Resolve and perseverance are crucial in The Ascetic for the player and the protagonist alike. Tests of might & dexterity must be conquered and trials of puzzles & traps must be overcome. The Ascetic places both the player and the protagonist in an environment of struggle and endurance. Along with the game's combat, puzzles & traps provoke the player and often threaten a deadly demise. Although restarting at checkpoints may suggest failure, the player must recognize - as the protagonist does - that you can only be defeated once you give into despair and quit.

The biggest focus of the game's design is directed towards the way the player can interact with the environment and its obstacles / enemies. Combat between the player and their opponent was carefully designed to both heavily emphasis spacing of attacks and an encourage a "in and out" style of fighting. Enemies, traps and other game elements are aware of your proximity and behave differently according to your distance from them. Health regenerates when in combat and dodging was intended to be more costly when on high health. These systems were designed to encourage the player to stay up close to their opponent but also punishes them for overstepping their boundaries all while also encouraging the player to take aggressive risks when high on health and incentivizes more dodging when low on health. That is the essential gameplay loop of this game and what would have been utilized more if we had more time.

The Team:

Benjamin Pielocik - Art, Dialogue 

Jaden Servant - Character Programmer

Nick Johnson - Level Design, Trap / Enemy Programming

Made in 4 weeks for Fitchburg State Universities' "Contemporary Issues in Games" course.