https://github.com/astrofra/game-der-erlkoenig

Game prototype made for a TIGSource.com contest in 2010, around the famous German tale : Der Erlkönig.
https://github.com/astrofra/game-der-erlkoenig

astrofra gamedev gamestart3d squirrel-lang tigsource

Last synced: 4 months ago
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Game prototype made for a TIGSource.com contest in 2010, around the famous German tale : Der Erlkönig.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/astrofra/game-der-erlkoenig
• Owner: astrofra
• License: mit
• Created: 2023-05-15T05:35:47.000Z (about 3 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2023-05-22T05:36:21.000Z (about 3 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2026-03-04T00:33:15.722Z (4 months ago)
• Topics: astrofra, gamedev, gamestart3d, squirrel-lang, tigsource
• Language: Squirrel
• Homepage: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=3286.0
• Size: 3.23 MB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 1
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

          


# Der Erlkoenig

Game prototype made for a TIGSource.com contest in 2010, inspired by the famous German tale : _Der Erlkönig_.

The game is implemented in [Squirrel](https://github.com/albertodemichelis/squirrel), based on a the [GameStart3D](https://www.youtube.com/@GameStart3D/videos) engine.

![](img/charadesign.png)


_Research for a character design_




In october 2008, the :tiger: TigSource community organized an online game jam (known as _TIGSource Contest_) titled **Commonplace Book Competition**.

> The theme of the game (was) H.P. Lovecraft's Commonplace Book. This was a notebook in which Lovecraft jotted down his various ideas, many of them disjointed and cryptic; most of these musings never became real stories.

## My game prototype

> Narrator walks along unfamiliar country road,—comes to strange region of the unreal.

For this gameplay, I chose to immerse the main character (“the narrator”) in an environment that would be entirely ruled by a physics engine. While the player doesn't directly control the main character, their task is to facilitate the progression along a course (“unfamiliar country road”) with deadly obstacles. The player, by interacting with certain elements of the environment, can move them or make them disappear. The usage of physics is a major challenge in terms of character control (we can only act indirectly on the velocity of moving objects) and because as soon as a coherent set has been put in place the interactions between each elements of gameplay happen autonomously.

## Visual parti pris

To convey the sense of an inescapable circumstance, I drew inspiration from the [Erlkönig for trumpet in B flat major, narrator and piano, by Michael T. OTTO](http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/otto.htm). Although not directly related to the idea quoted by the Commonplace Book, the mythology of the Erlkönig carries a universe from which I could draw a strong graphic principle of shadows, both simple and adapted in the very short development cycle imposed by the TigSource competition.

## Mockups and visual experiments

![](img/color-mockup.png)


_Color mockup for the parallax scrolling background._




![](img/level-mockup-000.png)


![](img/level-mockup-001.png)


_Mockups for a level design, using more or less complex shapes. Each type of brick is driven by the physics engine._




![](img/walk_sequence.png)


_Walk cycle for the main character._




![](img/prototype.png)


_Early game prototype._




## Video capture of the latest prototype

The game is playable, even though it contains one level only. The player can only control some of the blocks, by clicking on them, hence clearing the path upfront the path of the narrator.

[![youtube screenshot](img/der-erlkoenig-video-screenshot.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzBeBu_UmCU)