Devlog #1: Annoucing Doors & Corners
What is Doors & Corners?
Doors & Corners is a minimalist, roguelike third-person shooter built around the concept of short, intense playthroughs. The premise is simple, you're trying to escape from an underground facility by ascending through a series of procedurally generated levels connected via portals. The intensity is derived from the fact that it is one-hit-to-kill, so every hostile encounter is deadly. As you play, you can enhance your character by installing augments which can be collected from fabricators found on each level.
What is the gameplay like?
The game is designed around short, intense playthroughs. A successful playthrough (reaching the final portal on the last level), should take about 30 minutes. However, most playthroughs will not be successful, and in fact many will end within the first couple of minutes.
The core gameplay of Doors & Corners is a third-person shooter. You've got a gun, you're trying to get to the next level, and there are bad guys trying to stop you. Each level is procedurally generated and consists of a series of rooms connected via doors. Some of the doors are locked, but they can be hacked to unlock them. Hacking doors is always successful, but it takes time which increases the risk that you will be detected by your enemies.
The enemies on each level are initially unaware of you, but once they are alerted, they will respond in a coordinated fashion. Combat is highly lethal, with one-shot-to-kill in most situations (although you can obtain augments that slightly increase the survivability of your character). The projectiles fired by the guns in the game are slower than real world bullets, providing both you and your enemies with the opportunity to dodge them.
As you explore each level, you can locate fabricators which allow you to enhance your character by installing augments (one of these can be found on each level). Augments can do things like increase your hacking speed, reduce weapon kickback, provide built-in armor, allow you to see through walls, or even make you temporarily invisible.
Why did I create Doors & Corners?
I was inspired to create Doors & Corners by the fact that, as I have gotten older, my life has become busier and I have found myself with less and less free time for playing video games. As much as I love the idea of digging into the latest title with 100+ hours of content, at this point, even 40+ hours of content seems daunting. Additionally, not only has my total available time for playing games decreased, but the length of time available to me for gameplay sessions has also shrunk dramatically. This led me to try to create a game that I could quickly jump in to and out of. A game where I didn’t have to spend hours building up my character or have to try to remember what I was doing during my last gameplay session. The result is Doors & Corners.
