Tesco Tax Evasion

About The Game

Tesco Tax Evasion is a top-down 3D survival game developed in Unreal Engine 4.27. This was the first Level 3 Year 1 engines project of my games design course at South Gloucestershire & Stroud College (Stroud Campus), with me working as a solo developer.

We were given the theme of arcade. I chose to create a procedural runner, designing the project with the goal of making a portfolio ready arcade game prototype, in 4 weeks.

In a universe where Tesco has taken control of the government, the new CEO has introduced a forced payment called the 'Tesco Tax'. You didn’t want to pay this new tax, but eventually got caught by security while shopping at your local Tesco.

Throughout the multiple levels of gameplay, the player moves forward automatically down a procedurally generated path, ensuring each playthrough is unique. This includes randomly generated obstacles that must be avoided. Your goal is to take the obtainable items off the shelves to throw at the security guards chasing you. Getting hit will stun them for a few seconds of rest for the player, but will keep returning for the duration of the level. Every time you are hit, you lose some of your tax money, passively gained over time. Running out of money will result in a game over.

The game was originally planned to have a boss at the end of the final level, most likely the Tesco CEO. The boss ended up being cut due to time constraints as this was a shorter project than I was used to, requiring me to adjust my plan accordingly.

 

Credits

© South Gloucestershire & Stroud College

Person	Role(s)
Declan Lloyd	All

 

Controls

Input(s)	Action
A,D Arrow Keys	Movement
Left Mouse Button	Pick Up Item
Middle Mouse Scroll	Cycle Through Inventory
Right Mouse Button	Throw Selected Item
Space Bar Enter	Consume Selected Item
Escape (Esc)	Open Pause Menu

 

How To Play

You must move left and right to avoid obstacles both in-front of and behind you, eventually escaping out of the exit if you haven't been caught. Your goal is to end the level with the highest tax money accumulated as possible.

Each shelf has a chance to spawn some obtainable items. These can be thrown at the security guards behind to stun them, or consumed to aid your escape with special powerups. If you have multiple items in your inventory, you can cycle through them to choose the one you want to use.