Temple of Light (5-11 May)

I started the last week by sketching a new version of the wind level. The reason for this was that rather than having “randomly” placed pillars around a big room which all looked the same I wanted to give the player some diversity while playing the map. In the new level the player now has the possibility to explore even more as they now have the possibility to walk through different pillars. Also, the new level has received a total makeover with a theme of a small “city”. The new version of the level feels much more alive than the earlier version of it. By also adding small assets the player constantly has something new to see with the living environment surrounding him/her. As usual I have also been fixing minor flaws in the other levels. There are places where the mirrors for example have had to be moved so that the game is no longer broken. It seems though as we might not use the darkness level and the treasure chamber due to the lack of time. This is not necessarily a bad thing as this gives us a bigger chance to make the three other levels look outstanding.

 

There was also some ideas of creating an extra level for the game which would implement all the different features from the different levels. I personally do not think this is a good idea as we do not have the time in my opinion. All though, I started sketching on this level and started to model it in UE4 but for some reason I am not quite happy about how it is turning out. We will have to see what happens with it. Maybe it can be used after GGC if the group keeps working on this project.

 

I also started writing on the post mortem. I have not gotten that far yet but have managed to get together a template. The introduction is nearly completed as well as the method. Further work will have to be done on the paper the coming weeks.

Temple of Light (28 April-4 May)

Last week I spent most of my time trying to implement light into the levels. The biggest problem I had was to get a cozy atmosphere in the levels but still make it playable and not to dark. The reason this was so hard was because our temple is positioned inside/under a mountain. An easy way to get the right type of light would have been to have windows for example which would let me use the light from the sun, but this was not an option. As the different levels are positioned inside a mountain I had to use holes in the roof for example instead. This did not give the best effect as the holes don’t light up as much as I wanted. Instead I had to use “fake” light by positioning point lights with low intensity around the levels. A challenge which I faced quite early was that I could not use the same type of light for the different levels as they vary in size and have very different themes. Also, overall all the levels feel rather dark at the moment so that is something I’ll have to look at in the coming weeks. Maybe there will be other effects in the lighting when the correct meshes and textures have been inserted into the game.

 

Water Level

As the Water level is the smallest map in the game it was quite easy to get a nice light in the room. What I did was that I added a point light in the middle of the room which covered a huge area. This point light has a rather high intensity which lights up the whole room. On the walls surrounding the puzzle a couple of torches were inserted. These torches removed some of the shadows and even gave the room a more living type of light.

 

Wind Level

This level was quite hard to light up as it is so huge. Whenever I inserted lights around the map shadows appeared which made it next to impossible to play the level. A reason for this is probably that there are a lot of different height differences throughout the room. One way to fix this is to either have different point lights around the room which light up different parts or inserting a very low intensity global illumination. At the moment I have used the point light option but will have to look over it again after we have inserted the final meshes.

 

Fire Level

As there are a lot of moving objects in this level the lighting changes whenever you do something. This has a huge risk on the overall feeling of the room and has to be fixed using dynamic lightning. The positive part of this level though is that it is not very big which means that I can use less light sources. To get the ambient feeling of a level of fire torches were the obvious choice of lightning. Also, the fire traps that are introduced to the player in this level play a very important part as they will turn on and off which will light up and darken the level.

 

Darkness Level

The main challenge of this level is the darkness surrounding the player as the name of the level says. The higher up the player moves it gets lighter. In Unreal Engine 4 there is a default option of eye adjustment. What it does is that over time the players screen gets lighter and it gets easier to see the surrounding environment. Although it is a very interesting effect it breaks this specific level. The way to fix this is by using a post processing tool which exists in the engine. The room will have to be divided into three different levels of post processing where the eye adaptation has no effect at all at the bottom but gradually increases the higher the player gets. For this level it seems that point lights won’t work as well either as they light up to much of the level. Also, the light produced by a point light feels completely wrong. Instead I decided to use a variant of the torch which looks like a brazier. What it does is that it lights up the specific areas where the player can move but does not light up the traps and pitfalls in the level.

 

Corridors

The corridors throughout the game are completely closed and there is no natural light which can enter. The best way to light up these areas was by adding torches. The biggest problem here was that when I added the different torches the FPS went down a lot. The option here was to change out the dynamic fire for static point lights. This gave the corridors enough light so that the player can easily find the way but also seems as the torches are actually burning.

Temple of Light (21-27 april)

Last week I worked on the levels in Unreal Engine 4. It has worked quite well but it feels as there are a lot of things to learn in the program. Also, as it is quite new there are a lot of bugs and the program really enjoys crashing. This has done so that I have lost a lot of work and have had to redo it a couple of times.

 

I am quite satisfied by how the levels are turning out. All the levels are complete and work well so far. There have been a couple of minor changes from the sketches from last week which has helped the game from “breaking”. On the other side, as the graphic style has been changed as it was “offensive” I have had to replace all the mirrors in the game two times. It is really too bad as it feels as I could have used the time it took fixing these errors to make the rest of the levels more interesting and feel more tidy.

 

The overall difficulty is quite high though in the game, and it takes quite a lot of time for most players to complete them. There are exceptions where for example real puzzle-gamers play. These people have a tendency to figure out the puzzles quite fast as if you just explore a little it is quite easy to understand how the different levels work.

 

The main mechanic in the game are obviously the mirrors and the light. The main challenge though are the actual rooms as they are created in such a way to confuse the players and really make them think. There is always a clue to where the player has to go which is visible when activated. These clues help to guide the player but they do not complete the challenge. Probably I’ll have to iterate a lot on the levels as there will come comments from people who test the game. The chances are though that I’ll keep them almost the same as long as they don’t get worse.

Below are some screenshots from the progress of the levels. Enjoy!

Outside lit & unlit

Central Chamber lit & unlit

Treasure Chamber lit & unlit

Water level lit & unlit

Wind level lit & unlit

Fire level lit & unlit

Darkness level lit & unlit

Temple of Light (Big Game Project)

For the last 3 weeks I have been working on a game called Temple of Light with a group called Parehelion Entertainments for the course Big Game Project. The game is a First Person Puzzle where the player uses mirrors to move light and reach crystals to complete different challenges. My role in this project is level design and I have been working on four different levels as well as a zone where the player starts, a tutorial level, a central hub and a Treasure Chamber where the game ends. Below are the four levels where the player will spend most of the time in the game as well as a guide to what the different symbols mean.

The first level is the water level where the player has to move different mirrors to activate two ray receivers. When the two ray receivers have been activated two non-movable mirrors are activated which lets the player move the light so it can hit the crystal. As soon as the crystal has been activated water will start pouring down different openings found around the level. When this level has been completed as well the fountain in the central hub is activated.

The second level is the wind level. In this level the player will learn that he/she can jump as the main objective is to jump between different platforms so that different mirrors can be moved. Another thing the player will learn is that you can die in the game. If you die though, the only thing that happens is that you are moved to the entrance of the level. This level is by far the biggest one of the four which creates a big, open, environment which fits well with the wind attributes of the game. It also starts big fans in the room which cleans out the sand and moves clothes in the central hub.

The third level is the fire level. In this level the player will have to use his/her brain to complete the challenge. This level also introduces the player to traps, movable walls and leavers. By pulling different leavers in the correct order different walls will react in different ways. The player will have to try out to move mirrors and try to understand how they will act in different height’s. The traps on the other hand are used to make it harder for the player to move around the level. The way they work is by being activated for a period of time and then shutting down, after this they are activated again. If the player would be caught inside one of these fire traps he/she dies. If the player can manage to complete this puzzle torches light up in the central hub.

The fourth and last level uses the different challenges found throughout the last three levels. To make this level even harder huge parts of the level are completely dark making it hard to see where to go. The only light available is the level is light from the torches, the fire traps and the light emitted from the light ray. If the player completes this challenge a door will open in the central hub giving the player access to the Treasure Chamber.

After these sketches were complete I have been working in Unreal Engine 4. In this program I have created the different levels which are now fully playable. In the coming weeks I will finish the levels by giving them walls and adding assets created by the 3D artists from the group. Further information on how the levels are working out will come in the next blog post.

Project Grottan 2013-10-14

As said in the last post my group is working on a board game called Grottan. In this board game we decided to focus on exploration which meant that we had to make different tiles. The different tiles that were created were the Start tile, Exit tiles, Food tiles, Challenge tiles and the Path tiles. Each one of these fills its own purpose and are all essential for the core system of moving through the cave.

Start Tile

The start card is made up of two different tiles. The reason it is made out of two tiles is so the players can easily figure out where to start. Not only does this tile work as the start tile but also as a food tile which means that each player starts with one food. Before the game starts the players choose together where on the game board the tile should be placed.

Exit Tiles

The different exit tiles exist for the soul reason so that the game can end and act as the final quest. While there are different amounts of players more exits are used in the game. For example, when there are just two people playing only one exit is used. When three players are playing another exit is mixed into the deck and finally if four or more players are playing the last exit is added to the deck.

Food Tiles

Food tiles are very important while playing the game. Whenever a player places a tile he or she may take a food card. The food is then used to decrease the players hunger which means that the health increases. While playing the game the food acts as a timer making the players wanting to find more food or the exit before they die.

Experience/Challenge Tile

The challenge tiles work as places found in the caves that the players have to get through. The only way to get past a challenge tile is by rolling a D20. If the amount received on the die is higher than the players health or hunger the player cannot get past as he or she is too weak.

Path Tiles

These are the basic tiles used in the game to give the player the chance to explore the cave. These tiles don’t really fill any function more than letting the players move in different directions.

The images above are only preliminary and may choose throughout the process of the creation of the game. With time these tiles will be upgraded and might even gain a better graphical style making them easier to understand while playing.

Project Grottan 2013-10-09

For the coming weeks my group from the course “Advanced Game Design” will be working on a board game of our own. The game idea that we came up with is a round-based exploration game called Grottan (Working Title). The core idea is similar to games such as Betrayal and the Dungeons and Dragons board games where the players get to explore a collapsed cave using tiles. The final goal of the game is to find one of the three different exits by helping or killing your teammates.

The Board

Some things that we discussed were how we would create the board where the players would actually play the game. Some thoughts we discussed were for example if we would only use tiles to let the players build a level however they want or if there should be a board which the players would use as a boundary of where they could place the different tiles. Also, there were thoughts of having different amounts of exits of the cave for example. This would give the players the chance to judge the different risks of getting there as well as having to complete a specific task to get out.

The players

Each player could possibly get to choose a character card and a character figure. On the character card there would be represented the players strength, agility, wisdom, luck and life. Also, the card would include the character’s name and which alignment he or she would have. These alignments would represent how willing the character is to help others to make it out of the cave or if he/she is selfish and only cares that he/she will get out.

Items

Items are different objects the different characters have at the beginning of the game. These objects work as special perks that may be used to overcome the different challenges in the game. Also, while walking through the different caves the players may find different items that may aid them through their quest for survival.

Food

The players will have to eat food each round to be able to get stronger. Although, as the group is stuck in a cave with a limited amount of food it is really hard to get completely full. This results in that the players have the chance to steal food from each other as well as from the main pile of food. The food could be represented as cards and would be placed face down in a deck. On each card there would be different amounts of food. The food cards would only be picked up if the players make it onto a “food-tile”. As there are different food-types the players will receive perks for the strength and agility traits, as well as the players overall life. The further in to the cave the players get the lower their stats will get which means that they have to eat more food which will get harder every turn as the food will slowly deplete.

Chaos

In some tiles the player will enter a larger cave area. In this cave there could exist the possibility of having to take a random “adventure card”. On these cards there could be different traits such as different small monsters that would attack the players. The cards could also include different types of catastrophes which would occur that round for that tile. Some examples of these could be for example earthquakes, flooding, lava or cave-ins.

Backstabbing might be quite normal while playing this game as well. The reason for this is for example if one of the players has picked a character with an alignment of only wanting to survive by him/herself the player could choose to kill other players through the game by for example pushing others down cliffs for example. This will give the game a feeling of uncertainty as you will never know who is on your side or who will try to stab you in the back when the time is right.

If a player ever dies they will not be thrown out of the game. Instead that player will have the chance to turn into a monster of some type. The new goal of the player will be to kill the other players before they manage to get out of the cave. This will give the game a second phase and will create a feeling of anxiety and terror.

MDA for the game

Mechanics	Dynamics	Asethetics
If the player has to low stats in any of the traits there is a chance that he/she will have to rely more on dice. (Although, it could be added that the players could do special side-quests which would upgrade their stats.)Also, it can get very frustrating not knowing who might have stolen food from the food pile without the other players knowing.	-Having a hard time climbing and swimming for example-Not knowing who’s steeling food	Frustration
Monster players- as the players die new characters will start to exist in the game which are monsters. The goal of these characters is to kill the remaining survivors.	-Getting terrorized by having monsters follow you	Terror
If two players ever get to a tile with some type of danger a player may choose to roll a die. If the die beats a specific score he or she may try to kill the other player. The complete opposite can occure as well. If a player enters a room where another player is stuck a die can be used to check if the player can save the other players character	-Help or Destroy	Fear/Anxiety/Friendship/Loyalty
If a player walks of by themselves the character will have a couple of turns to get together with other players. Otherwise this character will go insane and will not be able to move from that tile until another player has moved there to rescue the player.	Get lost in the cave alone and get crazy	Insanity
Food increases the traits for strength, agility and life. As there is a shortage of food the players have the possibility to steal food from others or the food pile but may then loose the respect of others (this is done in secret)	Eat food to get stronger and survive	Survival
spelar kort/alignment?/ predefined cards -> har olika objects som kan vara både bra och dåliga. Tillexempel ett rep som kan användas för att klättra upp för klippor men också kväva en annan person,	Who wants to help the others and who does not care about the othersPlayer cards- explain alignments of the players,	Group solidarity
Remove tiles after moving/vision of the player- the group explores the cave by building new paths using different types of tiles but as they move the tiles behind them are removed to simulate that the players get lost in the cave.	Visual range of how long the players can see	The players are lost
If a player dies he/she will become a monster that will try to move and kill the surviving players	Die and become a monster of some kind	Death
As the food is eaten the food will get more valuable. As the food can be stolen this will give the players a hard time trusting each other of who has food and who doesn’t.  There is a huge risk that the players will try to bluff their way out of telling others of how much food they have at any point.	Faminefood equals power	Trust
The players may use the food cards at any time they want. This will increase the players strength and agility for the rest of the turn.	Eat food to survive and get strongerFood is shared between the playersFood can be stolen to get a player stronger	Food

These are just some examples of what the game can include and might change in the final product.

A very simple introduction to this great blog!

Hi,

My name is Simon Säfström and I am studying Gamedesign and Programming at Campus Gotland, Uppsala University. This blog is dedicated to games and other things that have anything to do with the subject. I’ll be showing the different types of projects I am working on during my studies as well as possibly even writing down my own thoughts. Hopefully this will help me grasp the bigger picture surrounding the world of games and anything else surrounding it.

For the people that might read this, hope you enjoy it and stick around for a bit. Let’s have some fun, shall we!