Escape from Alcatraz is a point and click adventure game inspired by LucasArts’ graphic adventure games from the 1990s, such as The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. It was developed using the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) over the course of several weeks.

Mechanics-wise, Escape from Alcatraz is a complete game. In terms of content it features around ten-fifteen minutes of gameplay, assuming the player knows exactly what to do, as shown in the video walkthrough above. The aim of the game/demo is to collect items needed to make a fake head, which the main character can then use to placate the guards while he escapes during the night.

Unique Selling Points

Point-and-click Interface Movement, interactions, conversations, inventory navigation, and so on, are all handled exclusively using the mouse. There is no keyboard/gamepad input at all.

Navigation Mesh Pathfinding The Unreal Engine’s support for auto-generation of Navigation Meshes, which simplifies the representation of complex geometry, is utilized for pathfinding instead of traditional path nodes.

Conversations A linear, rather than fully branching, conversation system is included which supports multiple dialogue choices and item trading with non-playable characters. It uses Scaleform and Adobe Flash for its user interface.

Inventory The Scaleform-powered inventory supports a drag-and-drop interface for reordering and/or combining items. Items can each be examined individually, and the player can cycle through items without using the inventory UI courtesy of the scroll wheel.

Interaction System Most of the objects in Alcatraz can be interacted with in one way or another; almost all can be examined, while many can be used directly, or used in conjunction with the currently equpped inventory item.

Development Diary

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