— 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.
