IndepenDance Day
John Bitcock, a robot who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, lives in his worst nightmare, an alternate version of America where it's illegal for robots to dance.
Determined to make his dream a reality, John sets out on a daring mission to rewrite history. Help John infiltrate the White House, solve physics-based puzzles using his precision cutting laser, and rewrite the Declaration of Independence so robots can dance.
Fall 2024 Best in Game Design
Game Features
Physics-Based Puzzles
Solve puzzles using John's precision cutting laser to navigate obstacles and progress.
Story-Driven
Help John rewrite history by infiltrating the White House and modifying the Declaration of Independence.
Engine-Focused Design
The first game created using the engine-focused paradigm, keeping game code separate from Basilisk.
Basilisk Engine
Built with Basilisk Engine, demonstrating the engine's capabilities for narrative-driven games.
Engine-Focused Paradigm
IndepenDance Day marked an important shift in how we approached game development with Basilisk Engine. This was the first game created using our engine-focused paradigm, where we deliberately kept the game's code completely separate from the engine's code.
This separation was crucial—it allowed us to package Basilisk Engine as a standalone Python package after the semester, making it available for others to use. The clean architecture demonstrated that Basilisk could be used as a proper game engine, not just a one-off project.
The game's success in winning the Fall 2024 Best in Game Design Award validated this approach and set the foundation for future Basilisk Engine games.