turtle.team()

Backdrop for the first stage, "Stingray".
Backdrop for the fourth stage, "Anglerfish".
Backdrop for the second stage, "Dragonfish".
Backdrop for the fifth stage, "Leviathan".
Backdrop for the third stage, "Vampire Squid".
Anglerfish
Leviathan
Stingray
Magical Stingray
Vampire Squid
Dragonfish
gameplay screenshot of Stingray battle
gameplay screenshot of Leviathan battle
gameplay screenshot of Vampire Squid battle
gameplay screenshot of Leviathan battle + dice output

Inspiration

We were frankly inspired by the theme of the HackPHS website. While we were generating ideas, we knew we wanted to make a game, and we knew we wanted to have TTRPG and MMORPG influences in it; the decision to make a marine-themed game just made sense. We also wanted to model the number of encounters after the five levels of sea depth with creatures inspired by those in each level.

What it does

Our project is an artistic, nerdy, marine-biology inspired choose-your-own-adventure game. Our demo shows several of our encounters alongside showcasing our design and soundtrack. No stock photos, free assets, or stock sound packs were used. Everything was made by our team of three within the 24 hour limit.

How we built it

Turtle.team()'s team is a group of three high school students from Mercer County Technical Schools STEM Academy, and we all excel in different places of project development. Before we had a game, we had a list of our materials and capabilities. Kevin was our programmer. He's excellent in Python and coded our whole game in Pygame. All audio was composed, mixed, and mastered by Noah. All graphics were created by Astur.

Challenges we ran into

This was our first time finishing a project like this-- for all of us. We're all proficient in our relative fields, but this is the first project we've ever finished to this extent.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We absolutely love how the soundtrack and graphics work in harmony with the gameplay. We're very proud of how we've combined technical with artistic, just like how the world in our game combines science with fantasy. It reminds us that these worlds aren't as different as people think.

What we learned

A lot. We all had to learn new software and new filesharing and workspace programs for this, and we also learned how our team can work together to achieve something we never thought we could do in such a short amount of time.

What's next for turtle.team()

We'll probably continue doing what we're doing. We're all nearing college and honing in on our skills before we switch from hobbyists to professionals.