Inde Exire
Solo design project
Inde Exire is the first project created at university, and it consisted of the game document for one of the levels for a bigger game I came up with.
The game focuses on the story of a man waking up in the deepest circle of hell with no memories of his past life, being forced to climb from the bottom up in search of freedom and identity. There will be nine levels in total - one for each circle, from Treachery up to Limbo. The concept of these levels are based on Dante’s original description in the Divine Comedy, but several creative liberties will be taken.
In each level, the main character will assume the appearance he possessed during his life, particularly in the moment when he committed the specific sin; giving him, and in turn the player, more clues towards his life story with each level. Another help in figuring out the events that led to his fate will be the NPCs met along the way, who may be people he used to know in his past.
Gameplay mockups & UI
The HUD system will be fairly simple, as the game will have a basic parkour mechanic and be otherwise based on puzzles and story elements.
The lives are displayed on the bottom right - after all five of them are lost, the player will have to start over from the beginning of the level instead of from a checkpoint.
On the top left and right are two numbers surrounded by red and white circles, referred to as White Mana and Red Mana in game. These represent the player’s good-to-evil energy ratio. These numbers will fluctuate greatly depending on the choices made during boss fights, and slightly depending on NPC interactions (dialogue choices). The numbers will affect what ending the player is going to obtain.
COLLECTIBLES
These are the mementos.
In this level, two will be available, obtainable from each of the main character’s parents.
One, a kitchen knife, for the action that led to his sin, and the other is a cross, his motive.
Level Design
The level based on the 7th circle starts out in the 3rd ring. This will be the third level encountered by the player. The player starts by climbing up a mountain of rocks into a desert, where shadow figures (in the shape of many severed hands) will start chasing after them almost right away, forcing them to make their way through the level fast and make quick decisions. If the shadows are outrun for long enough, there will be possibilities to interact with NPCs along the way.
The player traverses in a linear manner each of these locations. The transitions are smooth.
3rd Ring: A vast desert, crossed by a burning river of lava. A rain of fire descends from the sky. This part will simply be about avoiding the rain of fire, and is followed by a checkpoint. The souls of blasphemers, sodomites and usurers rest in this ring - this is an indication for the types of NPCs which populate it.
2nd Ring: A forest of bleeding trees, surrounded by harpies that will charge the player while within a particular range. The river of lava continues within the forest, followed by a checkpoint. People whose death was due to suicide rest in this ring.
1st Ring: The most prominent part of the river, where people are immersed in different degrees, and is followed by a checkpoint. This ring is dedicated to murderers, war-makers and tyrants.
Boss battle against the Minotaur: Takes place in front of a mountain of rocks, which would be then used to climb up to the 6th circle, Heresy. At the end, the player will be prompted to save their progress. (In this part, the player is exempt from having to outrun the shadows.)
2nd Ring: -Harpy-
These enemies will be stationary on top of the trees until the player approaches them.
Once the player gets in the range of their vision, they will produce a bird-like scream and charge (through AI, this enemy will be able to track the player and follow them for a short amount of time).
If they aren’t quick enough to react and get out of the way, they will be devoured alive.
1st Ring: -Damned soul-
The souls of murderers, war-makers and the like burn in the river in this part of the level. The protagonist belongs in this ring, as this is the nature of his sin, so the souls will be attempting to drag him in with them.
If the player steps on certain trapped objects floating in the river, a hand or torso will immediately reach out to grab them and drag them under. There will be no chance to escape, the only choice being to be careful. The trapped platforms/objects will always have visible hands grabbing onto them as a general sign to avoid.
Boss
This level has one boss, the Minotaur.
During the boss battle the camera will become still. The boss will be located in the center of a wide play area, surrounded by rocks.
There will mainly be two ways of beating this boss; the first one will result in an increase of the Red Mana - killing the Minotaur.
This will be accomplished by platforming on the floating rocks in the river of lava which circles the arena until one of them breaks and the boss falls into the lava. This may have to be repeated 2 or 3 times before being successful in getting the timing right.
The second way will result in an increase of White Mana - simply escaping without harming anyone.
The player will have to pick up and move rocks (a couple stacked rocks will be enough) in order to create a barrier the Minotaur will charge into and be stunned for long enough so that the player can climb up and escape.
The boss will be able to perform three main attacks; lunge (where it throws its whole body at the player), bite (a simple close range attack often preceded by the roar) and roar (a loud sound the player is stunned/immobilized by for a few seconds).
Characters
The main character’s narrative related to this level regards one of the last events of his life, despite only being the third stage of the game - part of the challenge for the player will be to find an order to these events and rebuild the story in their heads.
He was pushed towards the ultimate act of violence towards his brother after the death of his child due to an illness. His religious parents blamed it on his lack of faith; he lost his cool and murdered them in a fit of rage.
To the left - the design of the protagonist, Ezekiel
Below - the design of Ezekiel's parents
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15bV_Wget3KaQuJ3NUrISZxtX99RU-_yo/view?usp=sharing
Design of Ezekiel throughout the levels (out of order)
Cutscenes
The level contains two short cutscenes, one at the beginning and one at the end.
The first one will be located at the very beginning of the level, right after beating the previous one, and will showcast the protagonist climbing up the cliff of rocks and finding the vast desert area. As he is looking around, he notices the shadows from behind him, and he is forced to start running. The level starts from there.
The second will be placed at the end of the level. There are going to be two iterations of this cutscene, as a different way of beating the boss will result in slightly different events.
In the event of the defeat of the boss, the main character will watch the Minotaur drown in the lava, stop to look around and catch his breath before proceeding.
If the player decides to escape, the Minotaur will be shown charging at the rocks and falling over, and as the main character realizes what is happening, he runs away.
