This game can be played at https://alec-mitnik-take-a-hike.netlify.app/

This was a personal project I did for fun. I like seeing what I can do by just tinkering around with an index.html file loaded in a browser. It might not be the best system to make a game with, but it's fun to see what these simple, accessible, easy-to-work-with technologies are capable of. It also lets me flex some of the web development techniques I haven't had much chance to make use of.

The game itself was inspired by other games like Sushi Go! and Backpack Hero, where you have limited opportunity for resources and limited capacity, and you have to figure out how to utilize them best given what's in front of you, not knowing what you'll end up encountering later. Different items are useful in different situations or combinations, with some riskier than others but having greater potential. Making each step along the path be a choice of three options was inspired by Clash of the Dragons and Legacy of Heroes by 5th Planet Games, as well as numerous others, which showed it to be a sweet spot for compelling decision-making without becoming overwhelming. The Chance Time mechanic was inspired by things like the Wonder Pick in Pokémon TCG Pocket and the Rune Ruins mechanic in Archero 2, which show how much more compelling a random outcome can be when the player gets to personally pick it from the presented but unknown options.

I'm not remotely outdoorsy, but I felt the theme had lots of potential, and I particularly wanted to try to avoid common, overused tropes of battling monsters or racking up currency. This did leave the game a bit aimless, however, so I tried to lean further into the theming by capturing special moments/encounters into a memories album as a sort of achievement system. I found nice, free-to-use photos for these on Pixabay, that I feel do a good job of making the experience rewarding.

I utilized emojis as an easy way to add icons to the game. It introduces some constraints, but that often just serves as an interesting challenge to help motivate me, by coming up with ways to work within them. It's probably not a viable option for any serious project, but it works well for the purposes of this one.

This is just an initial version, and I have plenty of ideas for more that I can add in the future.