Akaash Garg

game portfolio: Survival Game

  • Ruins of the Forgotten – Survival Steam Game

    Ruins of the Forgotten – Survival Steam Game

    ROTF Game Banner

    Game Introduction

    In this game, you will play as a Forest Ranger who is lost in a jungle transformed by a strange happening during an animal tagging mission. During the night, due to some mystical energy, all animals are turning dangerous. This is a survival game where you have to take care of your thirst, hunger, and health.

    Your Goal

    You have to survive the jungle, find ruins and emeralds (“Manis”) that are linked with this anomaly, and solve the mystery. Build your base strong, take help from animals. Survive the jungle and find the ruins. Defeat big enemies and gain emeralds.

    Project Synopsis

    Game Engine : Unity

    SDK & Tools : Steam SDK

    3D Design Tool : Blender

    Other Assets : Asset Store

    Download Demo
    Completion
    Demo 100%

    Survival, Build, Craft

    Players must gather resources, craft tools, and build structures to survive. The game emphasizes resource management, base-building, and crafting systems essential for survival in the dangerous jungle.

    Challenge

    Creating a complex crafting and building system that fits seamlessly into the game while ensuring a balance between player progression and difficulty.

    Solution

    We implemented workstations (storage, repair, cook, craft) and designed a carriable system that allows players to create their own carriables.

    Custom Building ROTF

    Wildlife Interaction and Allie

    Players encounter wildlife affected by the anomaly, where they must choose allies carefully. Some animals can assist, while others pose significant threats.

    Challenge

    Designing an interaction system where wildlife AI behaves dynamically and naturally, while maintaining tension in the horror environment.

    Solution

    A modular procedural motion system using springs allows the camera and wieldable to respond fluidly to player actions, creating immersive wildlife interactions while enhancing the horror atmosphere.

    Unravel the Anomaly

    Exploring the world is key to solving the mystery behind the jungle’s transformation. Players must uncover clues in ancient ruins while facing supernatural threats tied to the anomaly.

     

    Challenge

     Building a non-linear narrative that offers meaningful exploration while maintaining pacing and suspense in a vast open world.

    Solution

    We integrated a time manager to control in-game time, combined with a day-night cycle component. This helped shift the environment from tense survival by day to full horror at night.

    Deer Red ROTF
    ROTF Jungle View

    Dynamic Jungle Setting

    The jungle is ever-changing, with day and night cycles creating a dynamic survival environment. The day offers challenges, but the night brings new horrors as the anomaly grows stronger.

    Challenge

    Designing a jungle with procedurally evolving landscapes that maintain tension and fear.

    Solution

    We are incorporating a sleeping system that progresses time and integrates with in-game elements like campfires and resource respawning, allowing players to control the environment while keeping them engaged in survival and horror.

    Varied Enemy Encounters

    Players face a wide range of enemies, from aggressive animals to supernatural creatures. Combat is varied, requiring different strategies for each encounter.

     

    Challenge

    Implementing unique enemy behaviors that adapt based on player actions and time of day.

    Solution

    We built an AI system that responds dynamically to player interactions and environmental changes, paired with a modular crosshair system for ranged and melee combat. We also developed a wieldable system with firearms and melee attacks, allowing fully customizable attacks.

    Golem Boss Fight Scene ROTF

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    ROTF Character

  • Bachelors Night Out – Fun RPG

    Bachelors Night Main Scene

    Game Introduction

    This game was my submission to the AI and Games Jam 2021. This game has about 10 different type of NPCs with different behavior and actions based on the events happening around in the environment. On top of all that there is a friend NPC which has an action related to almost all of the event in the game. This was a great learning opportunity for me to understand the various types of AI used in games for different purposes like Behavior trees for a boss fight, State Machine for stealth games etc. This game was positively received for its idea, fun but for me the biggest pro was creating a system which can be extended to a bigger scale content if needed. In future I hope to take this game and instead of a 5 min vertical, make it a full scale 8 hour game. So keep an eye out for the next update and more news about the development plans.

    Tech Stack

    • Game Engine – Unity
    • 3D Design Tool – Blender
    • Other Assets – Asset Store
    • Architecture – Goap
    Download Demo
    Completion
    Prototype 68%
    Architecture 84%
    Design 35%

    Implementing GOAP

    Goal Oriented Action Planning is done by creating goals for the NPC. These goals can be achieved by the actions which require a pre conditions and have a cost associated with them.  Goals can be to have fun or to live and actions can be the things that make them happen liking flirting, getting drunk adds fun ( not that I condone). Pre- conditions are extra condition that we can add in the environment which limits the action of NPC and make it based on what events are fired in the scene. Like before the action “getting drunk” can occur there is a precondition that bartender serves the drink( that can have its own pre-condition that player has the money).  This is quite useful as I can create situations and conditions as linear system and put everything together which would create a combinat effect and every gameplay would be quite different from each other making this game re-playable.

    Challenges

    The biggest challenge with GOAP is that once an action is approved by being the least costly and maximum goal priority, it is not possible to stop until the action is finished. So in my case, when my friend’s getting drunk action has started, he will complete it no matter what, even if other higher priority goal comes into picture. This is quite useful in SIMS type games and is achieved by A* algorithm. In the future I plan to modify the algorithm so that the action can be changed at any time depending on goal priority. There are so many different ways of achieving the desired AI affect in gameplay programming that it is quite cumbersome and a big commitment to select which way to go. In the future I plan to make some videos about pros and cons on various types of AI programming like GOAP, Behavior Trees, State machines and hardcoding ( yes, if else is also a way to make AI).