Early prototype and idea

As I mentioned earlier, I built a game "inspired by" Trauma Center in Second Life. I decided to make a short video of it and post here. It was made around 2012... Damn, time flies when you are an adult. The basic idea was that I just learned that I can detect the coordinates on the click event on the surface of the primitive, thus accessing a fine grid to work with. I just get to know Trauma Center a year before this reveal so the two came together to form this game idea and I developed the main game loop for it. It handles cutscenes in visual novel fashion with different transitions, sound effects, fade-in, fade-out, etc, handles save data, uses a story approach with chapter selection and handles the operation itself with different events, stages, 7 different tools, timing, the health of patient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqwXByCIkSw

And I made this little test operation which showcases all the main features of the game. The conversation between the nurse and the doctor came from Egoraptor's parody of Trauma Center, I even have the sound effects in Second Life but I was unable to record audio this time... The story is that the patient swallowed his car keys and you have to take it out through the abdomen. At first, you have to disinfect the area, make a precision cut along the dots. Then take the key with the forceps. Now an evil PineApple logo appears (our old logo in Second Life) and goes around the screen. You have to use the drain tool 5 times to immobilize it, then quickly place it into the tray. If you are not quick enough it goes back to the previous stage of flying all around the screen. After you removed the logo, the key gets out too. Now you have to drain the area of blood, suture the wound along the dots and finally, place a bandage through the now closed area. That's all, patient is saved :)

Quarantine thinking

Right now I'm working from home. It's nice to be in the IT industry where you can work remotely and don't have to worry as much about the job, you have VPN, Hangouts, Teamviewer, etc... So it's quarantine season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and it had me thinking.

Is it the right time to release a hospital themed video game? I mean release is far away, but if I manage to release it in 2 years people will think it was inspired by current events. And people will be more sensitive about subjects of healthcare... But that's not the point. I was more worried about finishing anything at all in the first place. You see, I have some experience in game desing, I'm a programmer for over 10 years now. But I have a lot to learn still to deliver a game. And I was thinking about scaling back to the original idea first. It lets me practice 3D modelling and Unity, meanwhile I set a smaller, more achievable scope for the game. If it turns out well enough I can go further with the expanded idea where you can walk around the hospital and solve the mysteries of the cases. For now I just want the medical-drama and digital novel feel of the Trauma Center games and we'll see where it goes.