Lorelai
By Tyler Westerhoff
By Tyler Westerhoff
Setting
The year is 3020. Humans have found a way to reverse climate change, but, as a result, the human population has reached carrying capacity. Ellen, a space explorer sent by the Galactic States of America to explore potentially habitable worlds, has just crash landed on Lorelai, an alien planet in the B-42 Galaxy. With contact shut off from her main crew, Ellen must find a way to survive in this strange, but familiar world.
Goals
I want the player to experience two main emotions when playing my level: wonder and amusement.
By placing the player in a terrain with alien plant life and structures reminiscent of ancient ruins, I hope to create a sense of awe that drives a curiosity to explore the extraterrestrial landscape. Bellowing, exotic trees and radiant shrubbery combine to create the impression that the world is teeming with energy. Overgrown stone structures built above water tinted a friendly blue hue, suggest that, perhaps, this world was once, or even still is, inhabited by humanoid creatures. Based on Ellen’s necessary survival from her crash landing, the gameplay is focused on what the immense stone door in the distance has to offer. The environment serves as an immersive companion to the main gameplay puzzle of unlocking the door.
By placing the player in a terrain with alien plant life and structures reminiscent of ancient ruins, I hope to create a sense of awe that drives a curiosity to explore the extraterrestrial landscape. Bellowing, exotic trees and radiant shrubbery combine to create the impression that the world is teeming with energy. Overgrown stone structures built above water tinted a friendly blue hue, suggest that, perhaps, this world was once, or even still is, inhabited by humanoid creatures. Based on Ellen’s necessary survival from her crash landing, the gameplay is focused on what the immense stone door in the distance has to offer. The environment serves as an immersive companion to the main gameplay puzzle of unlocking the door.
Another goal of the level is to amuse the player with Ellen’s inner dialogue. Ellen’s sarcastic thoughts create a feeling of lightheartedness in an otherwise disastrous situation. My hope is that, by letting the player inside Ellen’s mind, they get a feeling of her personality and grow closer to the character and as a result, the level itself. Developing a positive relationship between player and character/world is a huge step towards creating a successful game. With this inclusion of inner dialogue, I want the player to become attached to Ellen’s personality and keep playing in search of Ellen’s next entertaining remark.
Gameplay
The explorer (player) is immediately placed in an ancient ruin, with their dropship clearly fixed to an extraterrestrial tree, smoke escaping from all sides. They make their way straight ahead and get their first clue on how to escape in the form of a switch that evidently controls the giant door in the distance. At this point, they can march ahead and dip their toes in the water to find a set of stairs that leads to the second switch, or they can traverse back and follow the elevated bridges on the 2nd “floor” of the habitat. This path leads to a moving platform that also leads to the second switch. The same moving platform is then used to get to another moving platform that takes the player to the 3rd floor. This floor contains the final switch and the door (end of the level). There are two paths that the explorer can take on this floor. The first is the shortest, but contains a difficult boss that the explorer can trick by “aggro”-ing it and running past. The second path contains four easier enemies. Upon switching all 3 switches and reaching the opened door, the explorer realizes that it is a teleporter. Unsure of what lies ahead, they dive in...
What I learned
One thing I learned was how individual entities can be combined to create a gameplay mechanic. For example, in order to create a User Interface Prompt within the 3D Game Kit system, I needed to combine the InfoZone prefab with the DialogueCanvas prefab. Also, when I needed 3 switches to open a door, I had to link up the switches to a counter first. Only then could the counter be linked up to the door. Furthermore, to indicate current progress, I had to additionally link up the counter to crystals. Now, I have an idea of how even simple gameplay mechanics can necessitate clever problem solving.
Another thing I learned is that creating a game is a time-consuming task. Sure, I knew that it was not going to be easy, but I did not have any prior measure of how long it actually took to design and create your own level. It gives me a huge appreciation for all of the campaigns that I have played. The next game level I create, I would love to work in a team environment. That way, tasks can be split up and I can run my ideas with other like-minded individuals.
