Runaway 51

Gold Standard Studios Team Members: Allison Roach, Jeevith Doddalingegowda Rama, Summer Lewin-Staley, Nathan Kufel

1. Game Instructions

Use the arrow keys to move.

• Left/Right Arrow = move
• Up Arrow = jump
• Up/Down Arrow = climb ladders
• Q = fire the alien beam to stun guards
• R = restart the game

Collect the required keys, avoid guards, and reach the exit. You lose a life when a guard hits you. When your lives reach 0, the game goes to the Game Over screen.

2. Game Walkthrough

• Tutorial (rm_tutorial): Collect 2 keys, learn movement and ladders, then reach the exit on the right side.
• Level 1 (rm_level): Collect 6 keys, avoid the guards, use the ladder routes and upper platforms, then exit once the key counter is full.
• Level 2 (rm_level2): Collect 6 keys, deal with the tighter guard layout and vertical route, then reach the exit to finish the game.

3. Cheat Codes

• Q = fire the alien beam attack
• 1 = set player lives to 3
• 2 = collect all keys for the current level
• 3 = skip to the next room
• 4 = stun all guards
• 5 = instant win
• 6 = instant game over
• 7 = save the game to savegame.txt
• 8 = load the game from savegame.txt
• 9 = not used
• R = restart the game from the beginning

4. Project Theme

Runaway 51 leans into an Area 51 escape theme by casting the player as a trapped alien breaking out of a secret facility. The title screen, jail and lab-style backgrounds, guard patrols, key-gated exits, stun beam, and red alert shader all reinforce the sense of a tense breakout. Each room increases pressure as the alien moves deeper through the base, collecting access keys while staying ahead of security.

Graduate-Level Features (ITCS 5230)

• Smart AI : Guard uses a 4-state FSM (Patrol, Suspicious, Chase, Incapacitated) with detection cone, line of sight, and close-range hearing. (obj_officer)
• Object Inheritance : obj_enemy_parent handles shared enemy gravity and physics. obj_officer inherits and adds patrol/chase behavior.
• Views : Camera follows the player in gameplay rooms using camera_set_view_pos. (obj_player Step Event)
• Shader : shd_alert applies red tint to player and dark border glow on screen when a guard is chasing. (obj_player Draw and Draw GUI Events)
• Particles : Three particle effects — green burst on beam hit, red burst when player is hit, gold sparkle on key collect. (obj_particle_manager)
• File Save/Load : Press 7 to save progress (room, lives, keys) to file. Press 8 to load. (obj_player Step Event)

6. Licensing Information

All game art was done by either Summer Lewin-Staley or Allison Roach.

Sounds:

8-bit Game Over Sound/Tune by EVRetro -- https://freesound.org/s/533034/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Blaster pew by hotpin7 -- https://freesound.org/s/819682/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

5 Chiptunes (Action) by Juhani Junkala - https://opengameart.org/content/5-chiptunes-action - License: Creative Commons 0

Cartoon, Stunned 01.wav by LilMati -- https://freesound.org/s/455216/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Retro, Coin 06.wav by LilMati -- https://freesound.org/s/515736/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Hurt05.wav by jeremysykes -- https://freesound.org/s/344523/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Unzip the file to play, must have GameMaker