The Megastructure

Explore the ancient Megastructure and salvage anything that might help your home station survive another day. Be ready when the time comes. We're all in this together.

This game is in *early prototype* stage. Though in a technically playable state, there is very little content. I originally designed a Chrono Trigger-like combat system for a 3D world for a potential JRPG-style game, but that's a project too big to tackle right now.

NOTE: For an overview of the game's current state, check out my devlogs here, and here, and here. The first covers the general gameplay loop, tone, and setting, while the second discusses my progress so far, and planned next steps. The third details my method of building my dialog system. Some of the information below may be outdated.

This is the general idea:

Hundreds of years ago, the Megastructure was found orbiting the centre of the universe. A station was quickly built upon it, eager to uncover its secrets, but even now, delvers continue to brave its depths - for knowledge and relics that might unveil more information about the ancient Megastructure.

But there's a catch - the Megastructure has many entrances, but they don't stay open for very long. Your team has to get in, salvage as much data and material as possible, and- most importantly - get out before your exit seals behind you.

THE MEGASTRUCTURE is a roguelike where exploration and information gathering is as important as combat.  And time is never on your side - if your team doesn't get back to the entrance within the time limit, the entrance seals, and your team and their salvage is lost (but perhaps not forever - survivors have a chance of being rescued in later runs). Escape, gain experience, and return with salvage and information to expand your base of operations and improve your ability to manipulate the Megastructure.

The final goal of the run is to reach the generator for one of countless Filaments that extend from the Megastructure. Each one bringing it closer to full activation.

Combat is tactical; positioning and smart use of the environment are highly recommended. In combat, when a character takes an action, they go on cooldown, unable to act again until the cooldown expires.

The game uses an elemental fusion mechanic to turn basic elements (air, fire, etc) into more complex ones (e.g. electricity, gravity, glass, clay).

Each run sees the delvers entering the Megastructure from a new entrance, and the deeper in they manage to get, the more unusual things they can discover, and the more Information they gather. Even permanently activating minor systems to tilt things in their favour. Meanwhile, salvage is more easily acquired by fighting the many inhabitants that have since moved into the Megastructure's winding corridors.

Either way, the more you collect, and the stronger you become , the deeper you can delve before the entrance seals. So you can be cautious and take short delves to build up experience and resources slower, or you can push deeper, attempting to gain access to more dangerous sectors.

Temporary character templates are from https://oboropixel.itch.io/top-down! They've been incredibly useful in getting this prototyped.