Rhoxena
Perilous discoveries on a deadly planet!
Summary
Rhoxena is an interactive web project that looks to bring a story to life in a game-like way by using only HTML, CSS, and JS. The project is inspired by various sci-fi works such as Marathon, Dead Space, Metroid, System Shock, and Halo. The project follows an unidentified agent who is sent to a research colony on a volatile planet after receiving orders from their organization to investigate a distress signal. Upon arrival, the agent finds the colony completely deserted and it seems there is a threat lurking in the shadows. The game's name, Rhoxena, refers to the alien species that the player encounters in similar vein to the Metroid franchise. The full game is available for download and can be acquired from here to be run locally.
Process
Before any coding began, Rhoxena started out as a simply a map of rooms. The original plan was to have the player explore an entire system of interlocking rooms in similar fashion to a Metroidvania, however the scope of the project was too big for the story it was supposed to be telling and the rooms were cut back from a massive 60 to less than 30. After some reconsidertions, the story was worked on directly alongside the development of the rooms so that I had the maximum amount of flexibility as I built things. The game went through several revisions with some features such as a night vision function being added and dropped.
Reflection
The goal of this project was to experiment with JS and CSS in order to see what sorts of animations and interactivity could be implemented using these two web languages. This project taught me a lot and opened my eyes to new possibilities that I did not know were possible previously. It also re-awakened my interest in game design and is officially the second video game I created in my life. With the new knowledge that I had gained in JS and CSS with this project, I was more confident with web design. I wish there was more interacitivity in the game and that I could have solved the problem of full screen scaling, so that is something I might focus on in a future revision of this project if I end up expanding upon the existing vision of it.