During my studies at Teesside University on my final year, I participated in a group project with nine fellow students. Unfortunately George Xenitidis left the group towards the start because of personal problems. For this group, I took the role of team manager and I was also the UI designer.
The project consisted of developing a game demo using any game engine. we chosen the Unreal engine and the iPad2 as the platform. Our reasons were that we all had previous experience in UDK thanks to the Journeyman Project and UDK only recently gained the ability to develop for the IOS. In a way we were pioneering a 3D platformer on the recently developer-able UDK platform.
M.C. Escher Painting
Game Concept
One of the team members suggested a third person rotation mechanic game. After some discussion, another team member mentioned an M.C. Escher staircase scenario in a rotating room. These staircases come from all different orientations, so a rotation mechanic would allow you to walk on sideway and upside down stairs.
With this, the team would base the game on trying to get to an exit in each room while navigating through a maze of stairs. This idea was further refined to include all manner of gameplay puzzles such as platforming, dodging deadly obstacles, having to slide a loose object by rotating the level and using interface puzzles to unlock or access areas of the level.
The gameplay would consist of pitfall traps, interface puzzles, rotating the world, trying to slide objects using the rotation and dodging obstacles.
The team decided that the rotation mechanic idea is somewhat original in a 3D space, so it was chosen as the core game mechanic for the game concept.
Finished Product Visuals:
Fuzzy Edge Logo
Splash Screen / Main Menu
Credits Screen
Load Screen
Demo End Screen
HUD
Level Snap-Shots
Characters
Level Demonstration
The video above shows the demonstration of the level developed on the iPad2. This covers the interface and game-play, accompanied by subtitle narration.
Story
The main character awakes in a puddle in dark cubed cargo room. She does not know where she is or how she got there. She only sees a control console and interacts with it. This makes the room rotate and the lights turn on. The room starts to come alive with the sounds of rusted machinery. From here, she is trying to escape these unknown surroundings by reaching each room exit.
As she progresses, she bumps into a small futuristic sentient robot. This robot has mistaken her for a pest and is persistently trying to exterminate her. The robot does not seem threatening at all because it is quite small and has no weapons. It however attempts to sabotage her progression through each room puzzle in the attempt to exterminate her.
The later rooms of the game will reveal that the main character is actually on a spaceship that is storing Earth artefacts. The main character will also learn in a melted ice exhibit, that she was part of the display. This part of the exhibit depicted a 21st century human being found on Mount Everest. Here you realise that the icy prison fell through a large crack in the floor once the ship crashed. This crack lead to the first level and is now clogged by one of the exhibits. Posters littered through the corridors between levels imply that nanobots repaired your frostbitten body.
Final Team Fuzzy Edge Development Team:
No comments:
Post a Comment