Walkthrough of the Level footage
Summary of the game: You play as a young exorcist where you're tasked to solve the mystery of the apartment that has been abandoned and haunted for years. Only to find out that most of the ghosts at here have ill intention towards humans. Along the way, the exorcist will encounter pure souls that will help her along the way. Despite the unknown journey lies ahead within the apartment, the exorcist presses on to uncover the truth of the place.
Level Design
Top down view of the blueprint of the level which provided by my supervisor.
In-game engine of the level
My task during the internship regarding level design is to further iterrate on the level and setup any encounters and puzzles.
Level thoughtprocess: The level is break into 2 sections, which is the left wing and the right wing. The level is also break into 2 events which is before and after obtaining key to store room. The goal of the level is to reached towards the left wing of the apartment to go towards the depths of the apartment.
Uses small rocks and debris to guide player path
Uses differences of lights to make player follow that direction
Placing the props differently to make playr follow intended path without feeling force
When the player first went in to the apartment through the side entrance due to the entrace is being blocked by debrics and old furniture, player will noticed there's a map on the right of the player's perspective. Furtheremore, I also use some small rocks to purposely craft like a path to let player follow the intended direction while not breaking their immersion and get scared by the angry ghost for immersion purpose. This also can be shown at the some parts of the later level where I purposely use some debrics and furniture to block areas to guide the player to the path they can take
Uses of lights differently to indicate safe and danger zone
In order to further guide the player into places, I uses contrast lights to lure player into going to the direction that the level wanted them to go . I would also use decal and even more contrast lights to let player know whether they are in a safe zone.
Puzzle Encounter
The player will stumble a puzzle encounter at the mailroom which blocked player from progressing to the next room. This required player to solve a puzzle that grants a key to unlock the blocked path. The puzzle is to help the pure soul reunited with it's family based on a note that the player can find in the room.
The player will found out that there are some family clothes and bears around the mailbox to indicate the soul is a child and the two teddy bears represents the dad and mom thanks to the picture that can be found. Player obtain both of the bear and placed it at a designated spot (red box below) which will spawn the soul out
The soul will ask about the player's intention at here and would only let her pass if she help it reunited with it families. The player right now have to place both of the bear near the soul to indicate reunion with the soul. This will enable the ghost to lighten up a dark passage that the player think its blocked to obtain the key to unlock the block path.
Puzzle Encounter 2
The second puzzle required player to help a pure soul find the missing wife within the water pump area. Once the player accepted quest, the player can hear the wind blows on the direction to signal the player on where to go
The player will saw that the crawling ghost is harrassing her and the only way to make her move is to activate the sound to lure it go towards the right direction. The wife will follow a certain path direction until it reaches another enemy
Yellow orbs represent enemy path
Red light (bright ligtht) indicate safe zone
The player will now need to time its movement to make the wife continue progressing further while not letting the ghost spot her. Once successful, the wife will reach towards a deadend and stay there for a while. The uses of light will also let player know where the player is suppose to go. The reason for making the wife's behavior like a human due to she's still indenial that she's dead, therefore explaining her form as a pure soul rather than a ghost.
Good soul distrct enemies to let player have an easier time
clearing the section
Once the player save the wife and help him reunite with the husband, this help player has an easier time progressigng at the last session of the game where enemies detection range and position can force player to a chokepoint easily. With the help of the pure souls ,they can distract certain ghost in the area to help player pass by or have a sneak purify on the ghost to make the last session of the game much easier. This design is to let players know that pure souls can be helpful for the player and provide context behind the apartment's lore. Without so, it can make certain areas feels hard to pass by without helping the pure souls and it feels like player has to do it everything by themselves. I purposely made it so there's still ways to get through it without the soul for replayability purpose.
Downtime Section
Some area will serve as a downtime in terms of gameplay where it focus more on lore building and the mood of the level going forward from here with corpse and blood can be found in the room with notes explaining information about the ghost encounters to let player be preparred. This is to not let player feel overwhelmed after solving puzzle or pass by enemies encounter.
After the downtime room, the player will encounter first normal ghost of the game where it required the player to sneak past the ghost. I purposely placed the props from left towards middle of the corridor to let player have enough room to hide and monitor enemy's patrol movement as during the start of the level, the player do not have any abilities to purify the ghost. This props placement will almost be identical towards the end of the level where it gives enough spaces for player to hide but forces them into chokepoint if they are not careful.
I also introduced temporary blocked path that requires player to unlock the path from the otherside to make player go on the initial intended path for exploration purpose and certain challenges to overcome like avoiding enemies. Once player find the other side of the temporary blocked path, the player will be rewarded with the main objective key to progress the level and the path will direct the player towards the destination which make player learn about taking another shortcut for progressing further the level.
Level Encounters to introduce Mechanics
Once player obtain the key to the store room, the outside of the security room will turn green from white to indicate danger.
The player will follow the ghost direction as it go towards the left direction as soon the player turns. When the player is close to it, the buzzing sound of the radio become louder indicate there's a radio being turn on and can be manipulated. The reason it can also make sense it's because its within the security room. The player now use the radio to distract the enemy to look towards the sound direction. The player can kill or purify the ghost to progress. With new mechanic being introduced, the level encounters with enemies has changed slightly to match with the sound mechanic.
Player have more options to get rid of ghost and enemies path have been altered based on the sound mechanic
Enemy Design & Lore
Thought process on caming out on Enemies Behavior: Since this is my first time desigining a horror game enemy, I first look at the enemies from Little Nightmare, Resident Evil and Fatal frame to get a gist on what makes enemies such as "Mr X from Resident Evil 2"and "The teacher from Little Nightmare 2" being discussed for years as well as ghost enemies of fatal frame. I notice that all of them have one similar trait, which is that they can do something that inflict fear towards player due to player's current abilities can't destroy it, they have to run, hide or use something to distract the enemy. Therefore, I designed some enemies to be intimadating to player for making them scared and immerse into the game. Secondly, I made the remaining enemies to always have to pay attention to their patrol path and movement to have an easier time so that they know that although they are ghost, there are still variation of ghost and different ways of getting rid of them, similar to resident evil zombie enemy design.
Thought process on caming out on Enemy Lore: Once I came out with the design of the enemies and since the location is based around southeast asia, I search for ghost folklore for southeast asia and also asia to gather some insipartion from it. I later write down the charactersitics of the ghosts in their folklore and create lore behind it based on the context of the apartment as well as tie together with the characterisitis of the ghost and its design.
Player Mechanic and Syngery Abilities
Thought process on caming out on Player Mechanic: I started researching on stealth and ghost genre game respectively and understand what sort of mechanic can be implemented towards the game. I came up with the conclusion on benchmark design for creating the mechanic of the game are:
a. Player is able to distract enemies for x amount of time
b. Player is temporary check the other area enemy condition
c. Player can ultilize environment object to their advantages
The reason for doing this is that I do not want to let player to feel overpower as this is a horror stealth game while having information and distraction tools in stealth game especially can help player feel gratification when they clear the level with the information they have which lead them to clear the level feeling proud of it. Not only that, this can help player feel the atmosphere of the game that the protagonist can be easily killed because of how threating the enemies are.
Regarding Synergy Mechanics, I look at real life reference on what if certain elements combine together will create what sort of effect as well as looking at some fiction materials like "Naruto", the ninjutsu combination. From there, I created the synergy abilities that can make ghost react differently if it got activated by player.
Enemies Encounters
Thought process on Enemies Encounter: Since it is taken place in an apartment, I design the encounters with enemies in 1-2 rooms within the apartment and have 1 or 2 enemies within the section to not let player feel overwhelmed on too many enemies to get through. Next, I based on the enemy design and player mechanics I created, set up their patrol path and what kind of items will be in the level for player to ultize the mechanics during the right time. That way, player can experiment on what mechanics should be used here during certain encounters and what the level presented to the player without feeling overwhelmed by the numbers of enemies because of the horror genre itself has give player the tensity it needed.
Challenges for the Project
Desiging player and enmies mechanics: when designing the enemies and players mechanics of the game based around stealth and horror and having to go through many reiterations to ensure the risk vs rewards, the amount of advantages that a player and the design of the enemies can have are designed well. Therefore, it made me watch and play many stealth and horror related game series like Dishonored, Lethal Company. Fatal frame, Splinter Cells and Metal Gear Solid. I also watched some series that inspired the project to be born tlike Poppy’s Playtime to grasp the overall concept of the game and how it ties back to the project itself by my supervisor.
Using Unity: I do not often uses Unity as frequently as Stencyl and Unreal Engine, therefore I spend more time on understanding Unity by watching basic youtube tutorials and my supervisor will tells me on some advices on unity if he spot an issue and go on to explain how the team would save on cost when making game like converting asset to prefab asset because it can be expensive . I usually experiment with the features while doing my given task so that I can fulfill the task that was given while learning at the same time