Archetype: Portal to Hell

Archetype is an in-development Metroidlike with permadeath and some inspiration from Doom and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

You may be wondering: "those are two very different things to be inspired by. Why did you combine them in one game?"

I wish the answer was more satisfying. I wanted to make a Metroidlike inspired by Doom, and I wanted to make a Metroidlike inspired by Avatar, but I only wanted to make one game. I think it works out, because the Doom inspiration comes in with the moment to moment combat, while the Avatar inspiration comes in with the high level structure of the game.

You know how in Avatar, the avatar is reincarnated each life as a different elemental bender? Like, Aang is an airbender, the avatar before him was a firebender, the avatar before him was an earthbender, and so on? Well, remember how I said this game has permadeath? Each time you die in game, you start over as a new avatar (I mean, archetype) with mastery over a different element. There are four areas in the game, one for each element, so in mechanics, that means rotating through each area as a starting area, so you'll get different abilities associated with your element first.

And you know how Doom has glory kills? Yeah, those are really cool, and great game design. So I copied them wholesale, but without all the custom animations, because that's a lot of work for one developer who is entirely new to animation. Steal from the best, you know?

The game is clearly a work in progress. It has some bugs to work out, mostly with enemy AI. It has a little bit more level design to go. It doesn't have any sound yet, or background art. I just hired a sound designer and composer and a pixel artist to help with those aspects, so you'll see improvements there before long!