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About There They Lay
About There They Lay
Game Engine: Unity
2D Art: Microsoft Paint
Overview
There They Lay is a 2d puzzle game me and 3 other game designers in my course made. Its the first systemic game we ever developed and its a game where you play as a man investigating problems on his life by drawing paths for him to get through on the whiteboard.
The man can only move when the player draws on the whiteboard and players must beat all the levels of the game in order to solve his personal problem. There They Lay is a game about movement and how to command someone using just actions. Its reminicant of old Adobe Flash games.
Contributions
I was the level designer, gameplay designer, Programmer and UI designer for There They Lay. My tasks included:
Creating the drawing mechanic in the game and creating levels for the players to solve with the drawing mechanic.
Designing the UI around the drawing mechanic and making sure it all worked. All the art was made in Microsoft Paint to keep it authentic with the style
I programmed the password entry at the start of the game.
I play tested all levels to make sure they were beatable.
Gameplay Design
Gameplay Design
Drawing System
Inspired by the old internet flash games of the late 90s and early 2000s we wanted the game to reflect that time period with the drawing mechanic. The drawing mechanic is based off Microsoft paint (Ms Paint) and what I did was create the drawing system using a Ray Cast that detects the drawing box and a line renderer to draw. The script is essentially drawing two lines at once; one for the render and another for the collision. This is essentially how the drawing mechanic works.
Throughout the game there are different erasing, colour types and brush types that all have different functions. We had the player gradually introduced to all the different drawing mechanics as to not overwhelm them. This was done to create variety in the gameplay and make challenging levels that require more thinking. Like Adobe flash games we wanted the players to feel smart after beating each level. My contributions to the drawing system include:
Creating the basic drawing mechanic script that was very modular in design allowing programmers to easily expand on the base mechanics.
Designed the brush, colour and erasing mechanics that the other programmers would implement.
Created the email system in game which acted as the storytelling elements.
Drawing Fuctionality in Update
Drawing Mechanic
Multiple Drawing Ultensils
Creating solutions to puzzles
Systemic Design
Level Design
Level Design
Level Design Approach (Press Play to Begin)
From the beginning of development we wanted players to build their solution to each level before they press play. As this game was created for systemic design research we wanted to give the player freedom to solve puzzles in the way they see as right just like other systemic games.
As the game has an unsual drawing mechanic we wanted players to be gradually introduced to ideas. The earlier levels usually have one solution as there are less mechancis but as it goes on there is more player freedom to solving puzzles while still keeping the game challenging. Once all the mechanics were in place it was very easy to design levels based off them.
For the level design we were inspired by Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wilds' smaller dungeons. In that game there was always one obvious solution but with the systemic physics based mechanics players could find unusal says to solve puzzles.
UI Design
UI Design
Inspiration
For There They Lay me and the team took inspiration from Windows 95 to create a retro 90s and slightly unsettling feel to the game. We wanted players to feel transported back to when Adobe Flash games were at their height so we went for a retro look which definetly helped with development time. I did the key artwork for the main menu and did the functionality too such as the password login with different alterations.
We also spent loads of development time ensuring the UI was functional and intutive to use as the UI is part of the design language of the game and the asesthics.
Password Login
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