Game Design

The Monster

The monster is the star of the show, navigating around the level for the player to avoid. The level uses creative use of scripted teleporters to keep the monster close at all times, I wanted the monster to be a constant threat and never have the player in a position where they arent worrying about it for too long. the intended aesthetics are mainly fear and anxiety as they avoid it while solving puzzles.  The player is alerted when the monster is near as I wanted the player to know they are in danger but still be surprised by it, this also lends into the aesthetics I mentioned earlier. It adds to the tense feeling I was going for, knowing the monster is around without knowing exactly where it is, this creates some interesting dynamics by letting the player know the monster is near but not exactly where, letting it sneak up on the player.

The Player

The player has a few ways of avoiding the monster, they can crawl to hide from the monster and later they get a gun that can slow down the monster.  I wanted to make sure the player wasn't completely defenseless against the monster without just letting them kill it. I wanted the mechanics to allow the player to slow down the monster gives them the ability to make a quick get away and crawling helps them avoid getting caught.

Puzzles

The puzzles are not difficult, but as the game progresses, the player is forced to act in closer proximity to the monster to make for a more stressful experience. And makes for exciting gameplay. The puzzles mostly fill the roll of aiding the aesthetics and dynamics I was trying to craft.

Level Design

Act 1

This acts as the slow open, there's a lot of open space that makes the monster easy to avoid and the puzzles are low stakes. The monster is spawned in when the player exits the locker room which triggers a flash of alerts to show the player what it looks like when the monster is near in a safe environment.  From there, the player is able to keep a safe distance from the monster, letting get used to the presence of the monster without directly engaging with it.

Act 2

The second act puts the player in tighter spaces with a looping level design to make sure the player doesn't get trapped, the goal was to have the player run around the monster while solving puzzles. The monster is teleported when the player enters the tool room to give the impression that the monster is “following” the player to the lower level. 

Act 3

The final act is short, but is built around the main puzzle of the airlock tunnel that forces the player to directly engage with the monster. The monster is teleported into the waiting room when the airlock button is first engaged to prevent forcing the player to lure the monster for too long, this would of gotten rid of some of the tension I wanted to have. 

Documentation

Process

The game was built in sections, I first wrote up the set up and then wrote the puzzles I wanted to make for act one and then the sequence the player would travel across the level, I picked puzzles that I thought would make sense for that floor and would be interesting to interact with, after this I then drew up the layout. With both the layout and how I wanted the puzzles to work, I opened the editor and the first thing I did was make the monster the way I wanted it, once the monster was finished I built the level for act one. I made each room first, then decorated it, afterwards, I used the test scene to build the puzzles and then imported them into the final level. I repeated this process for part two and part three. 

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