Inqubition

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Inspiration

Throughout my time playing games both on and off the Roblox platform, one genre has stood out to me: stealth. In a stealth mission, the stakes are high and the end is always near: small errors compound into larger threats, and eventually, one mistake can cause a player to get busted and fail their objective. For this game jam, I wanted to make my own take on this genre.

Much of my inspiration came from the decade-old Minecraft 1.8 map https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/the-heist-3372054/ It left a lasting impression on me, and I tried reimagining it on several platforms in the first few years after its release. Now, one decade later, I set out to reimagine it on Roblox.

Additional inspiration came from the Roblox experience Notoriety (and by proxy, the game PAYDAY 2). Here, I engaged with stealth-based gameplay for the first time and was immediately intrigued.

What it does

Inqubition is a stealth game where players traverse through SuperSqubits, Inc. in a mission for the valuable SuperSqubit. Various security systems are present in the building, including cameras, rovers, sonar systems, lasers, and more. The goal is to reach the heart of the facility, take the valuable SuperSqubit, and escape.

Progressing through the game involves avoiding security systems and finding a laptop somewhere on the map. To hack it, players must quickly and correctly type a sequence of characters. This will open the elevator doors in the current zone, allowing players to continue further. After reaching the final zone and escaping with the SuperSqubit in hand, the mission is considered successful.

Several abilities are provided for this mission. Players can sprint to maneuver around security systems. However, excessive sprinting results in impaired vision, and overuse causes the player to stumble from exhaustion. Additionally, players have access to Squbits, mysterious devices with unique properties. Two passive Squbits show the player's current statistics. Two active squbits serve specialized purposes: the "Sense" Squbit reveals the sightlines of all security systems, while the "Stealth" Squbit provides temporary invisibility to vision-based security systems. The latter two consume power, which must be replenished at designated charging areas throughout the facility.

The core mechanic of Inqubition, as well as my interpretation of the game jam theme, is "Exposure." Exposure is the game's health system and consists of two parts: Heat and Suspicion. Heat (orange) increases upon being detected by security systems, but slowly reduces when out of sight. Suspicion (red) increases much more slowly, but never goes down throughout a run. This acts as a scoring metric, where lower suspicion is better, while also impacting gameplay: the more a player is spotted, the less effective time they have before reaching the exposure threshold. Should a player accumulate too much exposure, the facility will send out a pulse that incapacitates them, ending their mission in failure.

Image: A camera, one of the many devices in the facility, next to a player holding their Exposure Squbit, which shows their current Heat and Suspicion.

How I built it

Inqubition was built entirely in Roblox Studio, leveraging the platform's modeling capabilities, scripting engine, and vast community toolbox.

The Studio AI Assistant helped me write tedious/boilerplate portions of scripts (getting services, connecting events to functions, preparing tweens, etc.) while also outlining the logic and procedures for core game systems.

Several models, sound files, and scripts made by other Roblox users were utilized in this project via the Toolbox. For all community content used, check the "Asset Credits" section.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge I faced was downsizing my ideas. I began this project with ambitious goals, but there were only so many things I could implement within five days. While I am happy with what I was able to construct within the game, I still have several unimplemented systems and a vision for a larger-scale version of this game. This is outlined in the "What's Next" section.

I also learned about good scripting practices the hard way. In some of my first scripts for the security systems, I left a lot of magic numbers and hardcoded values in my scripts. When it was time to build the levels, I quickly realized that changing values in scripts to customize each device was extremely unintuitive. I remedied this somewhat for future devices by moving magic numbers such as MoveTime and RotateTime into the attributes of Parts related to the device. This majorly sped up level design and construction, but there is still much to be done to make the security systems fully modular.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud to have turned a bubbling idea into a playable game in under five days! I originally wanted to build this in the summer, but I never even made a Studio project for it due to other matters. Thus, it became the premise for this game jam project. Quick planning, thorough prototyping, and help from the Studio AI Assistant allowed me to meet the deadline.

In terms of technical feats, I am most proud of the logic behind the security devices. It was my first time working with raycasts, and I successfully implemented a line-of-sight tracking system for vision-based security. By integrating touch events with this system, I also improved performance by turning off raycasting when no players are near a device. Players can hide behind walls and boxes without being spotted or lagging!

What I learned

Game development is a huge endeavor! It is so multidisciplinary, and I see why large teams are involved in making most games. While I thoroughly enjoyed scripting the security systems, other aspects, like level design, modeling, and thumbnail creation, required much more effort.

What's next for Inqubition

A lot! Some of the original ideas that didn't make this version of the game include:

• Crouching
• Leaning left and right to peek corners
• Seamless elevator transitions
• More squbits and upgrades for existing ones
• Three-tiered alarm, where hiding allows for survival against the first two exposure busts
• Improved laptop minigame, featuring randomized tasks with timers synced to music
• Multiplayer support, with some multi-exclusive zones and puzzles
• Decorations and lore drops throughout the zones
• Voice acting by the mission operator, doubly acting as an integrated tutorial
• Eventually: an infinite delver-like mode, with endless zones and roguelike progression

With these ideas, I hope to passionately turn Inqubition into a larger-scale game later down the line.

Asset credits

To save space, only the rbxasset ID is provided here. View more information on each entry by entering https://create.roblox.com/store/asset/<ID> into the search bar.

MODELS

• 2645547494 - Ceiling Light
• 182451181 - Wooden Crate
• 1269895074 - Jeep Car at spawn location
• 10625937447 - Cone Mesh (detection zones)

AUDIO

• 9118777437 - Sonar Scan
• 9113085764 - High Detection Hit
• 127799722113121 - Laptop Fail
• 9116729415 - Lever Pull
• 93927627634818 - "Sense" Toggle
• 9119736978 - "Stealth" Swoosh
• 117924704083745 - Stamina Exhaustion
• 1836764457 - Bass Motion (BGM!)

SCRIPTS

• 18692315955 - Sprint and Stamina Script
• 101543083979831 - EasyRagdoll
• 14796599857 - First Person Camera

PLUGINS

• 2273628561 - ThreeDText

Built With

• lua
• robloxstudio