Sergio Howdy! I'm excited to share the first playable prototype of my game, Cowpocalypse. This milestone marks the completion of the game’s first full quest and the establishment of its core gameplay loop—an RPG-to-FPS hybrid where you take on quests, earn currency, and survive the eerie chaos of a cow-infested apocalypse.
From the start, my goal was to deliver a full gameplay loop rather than just isolated mechanics. I wanted the experience to feel like a complete slice of the final game—talk to a quest giver, complete your mission, return for a reward, and use that currency for the next challenge. This foundation will make it easier to scale up as I add new quests and features.
In the final version, I plan to have four quests total: the first introduces the setting and tone of Cowpocalypse, the second introduces healing items and shops, the third focuses on combat and weapons, and the fourth concludes with a boss fight that rewards a special speedrun weapon. With that weapon, players will unlock new movement abilities like bunny hops and triple jumps, turning the game into a playground for speedrunners.
The prototype’s first quest begins when the player talks to the ranch boss. Before the quest starts, none of the quest-related objects exist in the scene. Once the player accepts the mission, the system spawns the relevant quest items and activates the necessary dialogue lines from a custom dialogue database. Each interaction is context-sensitive: the NPC’s dialogue changes depending on whether you’re accepting, progressing, or completing the quest. You can even decline quests, prompting alternate dialogue branches.
Once accepted, the player’s task is to repair a broken fence. I used an imported Unity highlighting script to make interactive objects stand out, which helps guide the player visually. As the player places each fence piece, a dynamic whispering system fades in and grows louder with every placement. When the final piece is placed, the whispers cut to total silence—and the animals that had begun spawning nearby vanish instantly. It’s a small but powerful touch that builds tension and gives the scene a haunting, deliberate rhythm.
After finishing the repair, the quest isn’t considered complete until the player returns to the ranch boss. This step was important to me, as it reinforces the RPG-style feedback loop. When the quest is turned in, the NPC delivers completion dialogue and rewards the player with 100 coins—enough to spend at the shop in the upcoming second quest. The currency system is managed by a lightweight singleton that tracks totals, updates the UI, and persists across scenes.
While I wasn’t able to finish my planned speedrun movement system in time for this prototype, I did complete a polished baseline movement setup. Players can move with the standard WASD controls, look around with the mouse, and perform smooth jumps that I spent a lot of time fine-tuning to feel responsive. The goal was to make sure movement felt satisfying even before advanced mechanics come into play.
For the next milestone, I’ll focus on implementing the shop and healing system that builds on the new currency feature. After that, I’ll move on to combat, weapons, and the final boss fight. Once all four quests are functional, I plan to polish the UI, add animations, and start experimenting with map shortcuts and easter eggs for speedrunning.
This prototype may only cover the first quest, but it already captures the strange, eerie energy I want Cowpocalypse to have—and I can’t wait to expand on it.