Departure of Mary
It is worth mentioning that Mary, our UI/ UX Designer for the project decided to post-pone her studies from this week and so will no longer be working with us on our game. We wish her all the best with her future endeavours.
Project Roadmap
This week and the last few weeks to come, for me, is to catch up on all the time that I was forced to spent elsewhere. As shown by the Project Roadmap devised by Luke Quinn, at this point the Hub Level should be finished and Level 2 also. If it were not for James stepping in to help, I believe I would be a goner in all honesty. Thankfully some of the load has been taken off. Now, it is a case of finishing this final puzzle level. As mentioned before, the Hub Level was unfortunately put on the backfoot to prioritise the actual puzzle levels themselves and as for Puzzle Level 1, this is in the roadmap because we initially over scoped and envisioned 3 puzzle levels that would go hand-in-hand with the Hub Level. I believe that if I was able to focus more attention on this project and not be restricted by external factors (and if me and James were to collaborate as we have) then we would be able to at least prototype all three levels and the Hub Level.
Caverns Level Update
In my last post, I mentioned that I was struggling to visualise how the puzzles would play out and with much deliberation with James we came up with an idea for the final level. I knew that there had to be a difference in playstyle and types of puzzles to that of James’ level and so what I am currently picturing is this: there is to be several tunnels that are situated in the deep pool section of the level, which are to be located underneath the top layer of the level. Either a material must be changed, or a button must be pressed, however they must be interacted with in a specific order, acting like a code. If the code is input wrong, then it is reset, and the player must start again. Instead of it being random, hints will be placed in certain parts of the level that influence the player's actions. There will be certain markings on walls that in theory could tell a story, although because they’re only markings, the meanings of them and thus the story behind them could be open to interpretation, adding a different sort of puzzle to the game. I like the idea of having roman numerals represent the current doomsday time as one identifier. As James is new to level design also, I shared a post with him which was written by Mike Barclay. Barclay states that in “single player levels, the player’s next goal or destination should be signposted to help guide the player. It should be visible enough to reduce frustration but shouldn’t remove the sense of exploration and challenge. If the player is challenged with uncovering the route, then the steps to achieve this can be signposted through lighting, audio or clever game mechanics.” (…) This is how I intend to implement these hints throughout the level, in a separate point he also states that “games such as The Last of Us have good usage of foreshadowing in environments. Usually, you are given a hint of what’s in store later in the level by finding survivor notes or environmental storytelling early on.” (Barclay, 2016) This will apply more so in our final game but for now, as aforementioned, the hints should help foresee what is to happen should they continue on and complete the puzzles. After all, the sequential button presses are sequential for a reason… My thinking is that they should warn the player of what they are about to do. When I have figured this out more clearly, I will elaborate in a future blog post.
The top section of the level has been grey boxed, and the textures included in the Eternal Temple Asset Pack have been implemented, my only concern though is that the scale of this room is subject to change which may result in me having to change the tiling twice over.
The part that I have included which I am most eager to see in action is the lift that is to be activated once the buttons on the top level are pressed in order.
The sides of the room, excluding the way in which the player entered, will each contain a button with a hint that correlates with the order in which it should be pressed. Once these have been pressed, then the button attached to the lift pedestal can be pressed and therefore the ring around the stairs will rotate, and at the same time, the lift will descend to the hidden cavern below.
Here the lift will stop upon a base with support beams. Now I need to figure out how the player should, and should not, proceed to the next set of puzzles.
References
2021. Unity. San Francisco: Unity Technologies
Barclay, M., 2016. My Level Design Guidelines | Michael Barclay – Level Designer. [online] Mikebarclay.co.uk. Available at: <http://www.mikebarclay.co.uk/my-level-design-guidelines/> [Accessed 20 August 2021].