Game creation / Game idea stage:
When we first started development on the game, we had to plan out and think in a more detailed way of what our game would be and what would really be achievable with our combined skill/time. My original idea changed a lot and we ended up coming up with a main idea as a group.
Your friends went out camping into a cave a couple days ago, it's been off limits to the public and you decided to not join them because of that. You get a text from your friend saying that they're stuck, and you need to come help them, so you make your way to the cave and explore it to try find them. The cave is not like any normal cave though, you find signs that your friends have passed through, but must go different paths and solve puzzles to try and catch up to them.
This idea is very different to the one i had originally, my original idea consisted of having your friends be NPC's which would come down into the cave with you. You could then use different NPC's to help you solve puzzles, depending on which ones you used and which ones you didn't, it could change the endings that you get. Though with how much work this would've taken, we ended up changing it because of the amount of time we had, and also that our main coder didn't know how to work with NPC's well enough.
My role in this project was a director, so to oversee what everyone was doing and help in different departments of it. I've mainly been working alongside the level designer in our group, who draws and maps out the different designs for levels and puzzles. With those ideas, me and the coder have been creating them in unreal engine 5 and putting it all together. My main task has been texturing and designing the insides of the levels with different models and textures created by our 3D artist.During the planning stages we also decided to give our game a very old retro style look, to make it seem like it would've been one of those old PS1 era type games. We did this by changing the post processing unit to make it look a lot more pixelated. I started designing the levels to look similar to this, having the textures and models being fairly simple, but that working well along with the pixelated style.
As of now, we've come up with a puzzle for the first room, and the later part of the first level. The puzzle will involve the player picking up crystals and slotting them into the right places into the first room, which will make a flashlight appear, so they are able to get through the darkness that's ahead of them. The puzzle later on will be that the player must find a code and put it into a panel, so they can unlock a door and get past it, allowing them to get to level 2.
I'm currently working on expanding the texturing for the level and getting the first room properly completed, I've had some trouble finding different textures to use, as a lot of them tend to clash with each other. So what I've decided to do for now is use the same texture for a lot of the cave, however I'm going to continue playing with the lighting, so it doesn't all look exactly the same.
This is currently what we have for the first puzzle. When you spawn into the room, there will be 3 different crystals on the floor, and there will be 3 symbols on the wall, glowing with the same colors that the crystals have. You will have to match each crystal with the same color symbol on the wall. Once this is done, a little cutscene will play and show you were the flashlight is. If you try and go into the darkness when the puzzle is not done, a message will display at the bottom of your screen saying "I cant see.. I need something to light up the way." There will also be a note on the wall as you walk in, which will show you what the default controls are.
We've also added a stamina bar and a inventory section. The stamina bar is simple, it allows the player to run for a certain amount of time, we will likely have this be something that's needed to be used during a chase section, but at the moment we aren't too sure what the later levels are going to look like.
Something that we've also struggled on for a while is what exactly the story of the game is going to be. Because the idea had changed around so much, we never really fell on a concrete idea to back up the game, and give it a good story. Though so far we're thinking of having it pretty simple: Your friends have gone exploring in an abandoned cave which known in the town for being dangerous. It's been a few days and you get a text from one of your friends, telling you that they are stuck and they need your help. You eventually find the cave and traces of your friends activities as you progress further through. As you get deeper and deeper, you start to find hints that it might not be your friends who are down here, eventually leading you to find a creature that's been able to imitate their voices and lead you down here.
As we've been developing the level and out concept for the game further. We've come up with a theme for the game, a good outline of the story that will follow it, and some hidden bits of lore that you can discover whilst playing. Our game isn't going to be based around an abandoned cave, but now an old mineshaft that went out of commission which your friends decided to go explore by themselves. The game is going to be split into 3 main levels, 4 if you include the introduction level.
We did have torches throughout our level, but we decided to change the lighting and instead add old industrial mining lights throughout the level, which make it look a lot better already. We also decided to add a fog effect throughout the level and it works really well with the pixilation of our game.
Because of these changes, and to make the entire game seem a bit more realistic and less fantasy, we're going to change the looks of some of the puzzles and change some more ideas. We're thinking of changing the crystals at the start to maybe some keys which will open up a door. We're going to make some changes for the 2nd puzzles as well, which wont be too different and is still putting a code into a panel, but how you're going to find the code will be done in a better way. We've been thinking about finding pages with fragments of the code on it, and you'll have to piece it all together.
We've just finished making the first puzzle into keys which will open a door, and i think it makes the over-all tone of the game a lot better, especially considering this is the first puzzle that they will encounter. Instead of picking up the crystals and slotting them into place, it's gonna be the same thing but with keys, leading to a big industrial door opening and letting you through. You'll still get the flashlight the same way though.
My 3D modeler has also been making a lot more assets which I've been slowly adding to the first level. These have been created to make the level feel more like an old abandoned mine. One of the most important ones was a model that makes the cave feel a lot more cramp, and a lot less square, thanks to the grey-boxing. By adding this model throughout the tighter sections of the cave, it makes it look a lot more real, and it's easy to add into all of the up coming levels too.
We also added a bunch of Wooden pillars/support beams around the cave to really make it look like it was old. It give it that look of a mining cave too, and we're currently working on having some rails and minecarts added to the level too.
Results of both combined together:
These are some images of the first and second level grey boxing, a lot with some comparisons of before and after we had it all textured. When i was creating the lay outs thanks to Emilia's drawings, i had to fully grey-box it all first and then slowly start adding the textures and different things throughout the levels.
This is a very early idea of what the introduction level is going to look like, we're planning to have it so you are walking through a forest and talking to yourself about your friends getting lost.
As of now, we've been making a lot more progress on our 2nd and 3rd level. The second level is nearly complete, with our coder just needing to add in the main mechanics, and me needing to import and move around some more assets to make it look better. Currently we have all the lighting done, the pickaxe mechanic fully implemented, and some scary moments and encounters with the monster that will follow you around during the level. The screenshots bellow
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