UNSDF — "Wrong Side of the Airlock"

A top-down sci-fi action-adventure in the spirit of the original Legend of Zelda engine: grid movement, one-screen-per-room transitions, painted 2D JRPG rooms, and push/pull crate puzzles. You've just been rejected by the United Nations Space Defense Force. Level 1 is a single "dungeon" — the cramped, lived-in Tier-9 space port — and your job is to smuggle yourself off the station.

Engine: Godot 4.6.x (GL Compatibility renderer) License: Apache-2.0 · © 2026 Aaron K. Clark (CryptoJones) Status: v0.1.0 — runnable vertical slice with painted room, NPC, player, and dialogue portrait art

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Run it

godot --headless --path . --import   # FIRST run only: builds the class cache
godot --path .                       # run the game
godot -e --path .                    # open in the editor instead

First launch must be the --import pass (or just open the editor once). A fresh clone has no .godot/ cache, so class_name globals aren't registered yet and a cold godot --path . dies with "Identifier ... not declared".

Main scene: scenes/main.tscn.

Controls

Action	Keys
Move	Arrows / WASD
Interact	Z / Enter / Space
Push	walk into a crate
Pull	hold X / Shift, back straight out of a crate
Choose	Up/Down + Interact (in dialogue)

The critical path

A1 Recruitment  --talk-->  B1 Concourse (Janitor + Traveler)
   -> B2 -> B3 Vents --north--> A3  (grab the ACCESS KEYCARD; vents skip the A2 cameras)
   -> ... -> C2 Engine Room --south(keycard)--> D2 Cargo Bay
        (push/pull 3 crates onto the plates -> POWER CORE)
   -> back to C2: give the Core to the Technician  ->  Restricted Gate (B4) unlocks
   -> B3 --east--> B4 --south--> C4 Fuel Depot --west--> C3 Smuggler's Hangar
   -> "I'm desperate."  ->  DEMO CLEAR

The brute-force route to the keycard (A1 -> A2 -> A3) runs the Security Hub cameras: get spotted and you're escorted back to the checkpoint. The vent route through B3 avoids them. C3 is reachable only through the unlocked B4->C4 buffer — never directly from the B- or D-rows.

Project layout

project.godot              # display: 320x240, integer scale, nearest filter
scenes/main.tscn           # boot scene -> scripts/main.gd
assets/
  backgrounds/             # painted room backgrounds, one per RoomDB id
  portraits/               # painted dialogue portraits
  sprites/                 # player and NPC sprites
scripts/
  main.gd                  # builds World + Player + HUD, loads room A1
  autoload/
    game_state.gd          # flags, checkpoint, runtime input map  (GameState)
    inventory.gd           # key items                              (Inventory)
    dialogue_manager.gd    # walks DialogueDB trees, drives the HUD (DialogueManager)
    room_manager.gd        # room build, slide transitions, locks   (RoomManager)
  data/
    grid.gd                # tile/screen constants + helpers
    item_db.gd             # key-item catalogue
    dialogue_db.gd         # all six NPC dialogue trees
    room_db.gd             # the 16-room station as data
  world/
    room.gd                # builds + draws one screen; puzzle + camera logic
    player.gd              # grid push/pull controller
    pushable.gd            # crate
  ui/
    hud.gd                 # dialogue box, status, fade, DEMO CLEAR
shaders/
  snes_quantize.gdshader   # global posterize to a 16-bit color space
  palette_swap.gdshader    # indexed palette state-swaps (e.g. alarm red)
docs/DESIGN.md             # the locked level-1 design canon

See docs/DESIGN.md for the full grid, dialogue, mechanics, and puzzle spec.

Locked design calls (v0.1.0)

• Controller: push/pull, no dash.
• Soft-lock guard: room-exit reset (rooms rebuild from data on entry).
• Threat model: binary stealth/caught, hard reset, no HP bar.
• Transition topology: the Restricted Gate (B4) empties into the Fuel Depot (C4), which buffers into the Smuggler's Hangar (C3).

Scaffolded vs. next

In place & runnable: all systems above + the full critical path, end to end, with painted backgrounds, player sprites, NPC sprites, and dialogue portraits.

Placeholder / next up:

• Wire snes_quantize as a screen post-process and use palette_swap for the alarm-state mood shift when a camera trips.
• Flesh out the optional rooms (Trash Compactor, Comm. Array, Life Support, Air-Lock) with flavor and secrets.
• Audio (pneumatic hiss on the cache, camera sweep hum, the undock sting).