About the Game
Persistence is a top-down, 2D roguelike about overcoming depression by escaping your mind by facing personified metaphors of anguish.
Persistence was solo-developed in 2 months, with my main focus being on narrative design, sound design, and programming.
About the Game
Persistence is a top-down, 2D roguelike about overcoming depression by escaping your mind by facing personified metaphors of anguish.
Persistence was solo-developed in 2 months, with my main focus being on narrative design, sound design, and programming.
Ideating
The reasoning behind choosing roguelike as the genre for Persistence was due to the structure of a roguelike's level design being eerily similar to what it feels to be depressed: it's like your brain keeps creating a new maze for you to conquer.
The mood board that I made in the pre-production phase that helped me decide on the game's aesthetic and tone.
Pixel Art
To capture a human and genuine feeling with the art, I went with a crude art style similar to Toby Fox's "Undertale."
The use of a 4-color scheme was chosen to reflect the feeling of monotony when being depressed.
Procedural Generation
Visualization of the procedural generated rooms
Code of the procedural generated rooms
State Pattern
Player state machine
Enemy state machine
Game footage showcasing different states of both the player and enemies
The Observer Pattern
Example of the observer pattern used for the UI
Example of the observer pattern being used to update the UI
Game Feel
To elevate the experience of Persistence, I used Unity's particle system to add weight to an enemy's death as well as created my own animations for the sprites.
Footage of Unity's animator being used in Persistence
Music
When making the music, the focus was to create ambient overworld tracks that are then juxtaposed by rhythmic battle themes.
The quality for some of the songs are poor, so I highly recommend listening to the songs by clicking here! (You'll also see notes on each track in their respective description!)
"Persist"
"Light at the End of the Tunnel"
"Breakdown"
"What a Drag"
"Crystal"
"No Time to Fear!"