Patchwork Beast

Patchwork Beast is a singleplayer 2D RPG indie game created in Godot. Our three-person team completed the game over the course of a semester, following weekly sprints in an agile/scrum methodology, and used Github for version control. Inspired by ecocentric themes in Ghibli films, steampunk aesthetics, and hack-and-slash combat mechanics, we wanted to create a visually beautiful, narrative-rich game that focuses on themes of environmental healing while still having familiar fast-action combat-adjacent gameplay mechanics.

You are Ramis, an intrepid traveler journeying from home with a walking staff among your meager belongings. Mystified by the tales your elders spun about the enchanted forests of ages past, long before industrial development changed the world, you venture towards the wilds. A famed village called Mossglen lies at the forest edge, a supposed crossroads between the human and forest spirit worlds. On your way, you stumble upon a forest spirit—but there's a strange metallic rust creeping up its body, and even stranger twitches in its gait. Mossglen is nothing like the tales as well: the formerly vibrant settlement is now nothing but a ghost town. The remaining residents live in fear of this so-called Corrosion spreading from the forest center rotting the land and spirits from the inside out.

Your staff, however—an heirloom passed down from your elders—may be the key to healing it. With a promise to upkeep, you must journey deeper into the forest, uncover the origins of the Corrosion contaminating it, and heal afflicted forest spirits with your newfound powers. The beast awaits you.

All art for Patchwork Beast was original and illustrated in Clip Studio Paint. Ramis, the protagonist, wears a vibrant red cape that constrasts with the blues and greens of the forest world. He dons a leaf hat and carries a glowing green staff to show his nature-healing powers. For ease of animation, all characters have a simplified in-game sprite version as well as a more detailed dialogue sprite. UI designs like the menu were also customized to fit the nature theme.

Patchwork Beast is a dungeon-crawler style game, with a main village area or home base, and different "rooms" in the forest the player can traverse through and engage in combat. However, the "combat" is focused on healing rather than violence. Ramis faces various forest spirits who are being corroded by a strange metallic miasma (the rusty red-brown stains that slowly overtake the spirits' green bodies. Ramis must dodge attacks from the aggressive spirits while casting healing spells at them to remove the Corrosion from their bodies, upon which the spirits cease their hostility and peacefully disappear back into the trees.

Ramis gains abilities from spirits as he saves them, like [Dash] from the deer and [Smash] from the bear. The spirits in each room get progressively more powerful. Some rooms also contain NPC dialogue interactions, notably with Isla, a humanoid spirit who seems disgruntled with Ramis's efforts. Over the course of several runs through the forest, Ramis will learn more about the world and the nature of the corrosion through interactions with Isla and the Mossglen villagers. If he perishes anytime during his journey, Ramis teleports back to the village square and can make a new attempt through the forest. If he makes it through all the forest rooms, he comes to the final clearing for a boss fight, where the source of the Corrosion—a beastly amalgamation of clanking, steaming industrial parts belching polluted smoke—awaits.

The player moves using [WASD], interacts with [E], and left-clicks to cast a healing spell. They also gain special abilities using [SPACE] and [Q] during a run.