Gameplay
Overview
Bye-Plane was a game created for my final year dissertation.
Bye-Plane is an open world game about a pilot who goes through a portal into a strange world. He crash lands in a village and must re-build the village using resources that he can find around the game world.
The player must fly between the islands in their Plane to gather resources and collect mystical rocks for the trader, these rocks are scattered around the islands.
The main aim of the project was to create a game that players became immersed in to see how they're mood changed once they had completed the game.
Detailed Information
The plane was added to give the player a fun way to travel through the world. This mechanic also provided players with two different play styles to choose from. This is because by completing the hoop activities players were given a 100 gold reward. These hoops reset after time meaning that players who wanted to fly the plane can still gain enough money to buy resources and complete the game. Also the plane is upgradable and customisable so players are able to put their own personality into the world. The team felt that allowing two types of play styles was important because it meant that the game would appeal to a wider audience.
I began by creating the level plans that would be used to build the whiteboxes and the final islands. The plans were given measurements so that it was clear how large they needed to be in Maya. On top of this they also outlined where paths would go and where points of interest would be such as camp fires and chest locations.
To demonstrate height colour gradients were used to show the height variations on the islands. The lighter shades of grey show higher points and darker shades lower areas.
Once the plans were completed, I began construction of the three islands in whitebox form. These whiteboxes were used as a play space for the programmer and myself to test out mechanics and begin implementing game play as well as giving the environment artist a base to begin building the Islands in Maya 2016.
The whiteboxes were built in Maya and were then imported into Unity. This method of building whiteboxes before fully constructing the levels is a very common process during development and the team thought it would be best to follow this practice.
Dressing the scene involved myself and the environment artist working together to position assets in a way that made the world look appealing and feel alive. This was the longest process as it involved lots of trial and error for placing objects to help guide the player and make them want to explore.
We decided early on that we wanted the player to get a massive sense of agency and reward playing Bye-Plane.
Because of this we took several simple mechanics and then combined them to try and create a complex system overall.
The main mechanics consisted of; resource gathering, village building, plane flying, plane activities and exploration. These were chosen because they were systems that could be used in tandem to create interesting and immersive gameplay.
Resource gathering was used to give players a need to explore the world. Their main objective was to re-build the village and to do this they would need resources, therefore this system tied in with the mechanic of village building. The player was given the chance to both build the village to complete the game and customise it the way they wanted. Not only did this system give the player greater agency, it also gave then a big sense of reward.
An essential mechanic to the core game loop was exploration. It was my job to outline the play space and make the player want to explore it by filling the world with interesting objects, putting characters in interesting places so that the player would encounter them and make the world feel alive and worth exploring. I worked very closely on this aspect of the game, making sure that there was a play space that rewarded curiosity. Surprise is the greatest reward for exploration and the world must pique the player’s curiosity.
Overview
Below is information about the game I entered Dare to be Digital 2015 with. We entered with our Game 'Pathos' which is a 3D puzzle adventure game with a strong rhetoric for Android and handheld devices.
For this project I took on the role of level, game designer and project manager.
Below I have provided information on my areas of the game. These include concepting puzzles during pre production, designing puzzles for the final game and designing the levels.
This game successfully made it to the finals of Dare 2015 and took part in the ProtoPlay event.
Take a look at our pitch video and game trailer or scroll down to see some puzzle designs and information of the work I completed for Pathos.
This game was the winner of the Channel 4 award and the Design in Action award.
Pathos (Dare to be Digital 2015)
Trailer
Software Used
Roles
-Level Designer
-Game Designer
-Project Manager
-Puzzle Designer
-Audio Designer
Pitch Video
The image below is the plan for the second level known as 'The Bell'.
The image below shows the final level layout along with the camera positions and what areas they will be showing.
Pathos won several awards at Dare to be Digital 2015.
Awards
Winner of the Design in Action
Prize for Commercial Potential
Winner of the Channel 4 Award
Detailed Information
On Pathos I had a large involvment in Level and Puzzle design as well as the other tasks that I have listed above. The final levels and puzzles that were used in Pathos for Dare to be Digital went thrugh many iterations during the production of the game. We wanted the level to consist of three main puzzles or challenges that the players would have to complete to finish the level.
There would be minor challenges in the level as well that would fill in the gaps between these main challenges. Since Pathos is a Puzzle Adventure game we felt very strongly about giving the player something to explore. This is the reason for the long corridors, and is the main reason for the dopples to exist.
The dopples were used as a 'adversary' for the player. Pathos is a non violent game and we had to design the level around this. The dopples job is to get in the player's way and hinder them. Therefore the dopples push the player off of balance beams that the player needs to cross to proceed in the level.
The puzzles are intended to get progressively harder and require more thinking as the game progresses. One main mechanic that was featured in Pathos was the flip mechanic. The flip mechanic is used when the player reaches a portal and then flips their handheld device. The flip sends the player into a world that is exactly the same as the previous but, has some key differences. For example in order to solve some puzzles in the normal world the player must flip and acquire several puzzle pieces that are needed back in the normal world.
This flip mechanic would provide the player with a mirrored world and this meant that we had to design the levels and puzzles in a way so that the player could easily navigate the level but, still have some challenge no mattter what state they were in.
Below is a level plan for the Cave.