— PROJECT NAME
Praetor

— ROLE
Sole Developer & Designer

— ENGINE
Unity

— DATE
Aug 2022 - Nov 2022
Praetor was my original concept for my master's thesis: Could one create a roguelike with as many satisfying facets as the classic Doom games? Below is a video of an early combat demo. Above you can see screenshots exploring the vast prototype level I built. Praetor features a body-part system in which the player swaps between different Heads, Arms, Legs, and Torsos to attach and modify their character. 
The prototype level is static, featuring a set of nine rooms, each with a different enemy, upgrade, or exploratory aspect. This is in contrast with Godwalker, which has dynamically changing environments.
While exciting to play and well received by the a small community, I ultimately decided to explore other concepts for my thesis, as Praetor's scope was far too high for a solo developer to achieve. This prototype eventually became the seed for my next project, Godwalker.
You can download and play Praetor for free, by clicking here.​​​​​​​
Praetor was ultimately the result of an intense amount of experimentation. Having just finished work on Rock Hopper, I wanted to explore new aspects of technical design that he hadn't had the chance to before. These included dynamic animations, high quality visual effects, procedural animations, and a much higher bar for game feel.

The goal of Praetor was dynamic and loose. It was never intended to be a commercial product, but was far more my first soiree into a world of high quality game development. It was a combination of high quality prototypes and rapid iterations, each of which fit together into a larger whole. ​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​When I put the project down in November of 2022, I came away from it with an array of tools which allowed me to quickly and easily shift the entire design focus over to Godwalker in a weekend. To say that Praetor will never be touched again is not a guarantee. The prototype ended up being 45 minutes long in playtests, and while it has some edges which need to be smoothed over, I was more than satisfied with the quality I was able to achieve in the time I had.

Earlier I said this was my first dive into "high quality" game development. To clarify this, I mean to say that the technical systems and environments in this prototype were crafted with great care. While they may not be perfect, they represent the first steps I took to achieving AAA quality work.
In more ways than one, the opportunity to build Praetor was a playground for me. After I built a series of systems and tools to construct levels, I quickly found myself enamored. For weeks I did nothing but build combat arenas and metroidvania-style snaking corridors and secrets. I even found time to build an entirely secret combat arena that you can only access once you've completed the game.

This was the first game I had ever worked on which gave me both the breadth and the depth to explore the aspects of design which I truly loved. It allowed me to frame my process more aptly, and build a strong foundation of which to work off of. 

Praetor may not have become my thesis, but it holds a special place in my heart as my first true game-design love. Though it is rough around the edges, I am very proud of this prototype.

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