Pre-Production/Planning and research - Unit 9

THE BINDING OF ISAAC

Summary

The Binding of Isaac is a popular, indie, roguelike, dungeon crawler game released in 2011 by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. Its story is heavy on biblical themes, biblical trauma, and it is primarily based on the biblical story of the same name, Binding of Isaac.

Steam Description

"When Isaac’s mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged enemies, lost brothers and sisters, his fears, and eventually his mother.

The Binding of Isaac is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like elements. Following Isaac on his journey players will find bizarre treasures that change Isaac’s form giving him super human abilities and enabling him to fight off droves of mysterious creatures, discover secrets and fight his way to safety.

Key features:

- Randomly generated dungeons, items enemies and bosses, you never play the same game twice.

- Over 100 unique items that not only give you powers but visually change your character.

- 50+ enemy types each with the ability to become "special" making them extra deadly but they also drop better loot.

- Over 20 bosses.

- 4 full chapters spanning 8 levels

- 3+ unlockable classes

- Multiple endings

- Tons of unlockable items, enemies, bosses and more."

Positive Reviews

Negative Reviews

ESCAPE THE BACKROOMS

Summary

Escape the Backrooms is a co-op multiplayer horror exploration game released in 2022 by Fancy Games based on the popular internet creepypasta, the Backrooms. You or up to 3 other players traverse through different backrooms levels to find an escape, avoiding hazards and enemies.

Steam Description

"Explore the seemingly infinite expanse of eerily familiar levels in the backrooms based on the popular creepypasta lore. Each level features different ways to escape with danger along the way.

Immersive Experience

Realistic graphics, minimal user interfaces, and dreary ambience will ensure an immersive experience.

Co-op Multiplayer

Explore the backrooms with a team of up to 4 players. Be warned, as teammates may no-clip into other areas of the map and every member of your team must find the exit alive to escape. No wanderer left behind.

Unique Levels

Traverse though 20+ unique levels based on backrooms lore with regular content updates adding more. Each level features a different way to escape with various danger along the way.

Dangerous Entities

Check every corner so you won't be caught off guard by one of 12 hostile entities in the backrooms, each with their own mechanics you'll need to quickly learn if you want to survive.

Proximity Voice Chat

Communicate with your teammates with proximity voice chat. Be sure to not wander far away from your team, as you can easily get lost in the confusing expanse of the backrooms. Entities can also hear you, so stay quiet whenever you're near any danger."

Positive Reviews

Negative Reviews

TERMINAL ESCAPE ROOM

Summary

Terminal [Escape Room] is a multiplayer puzzle ROBLOX game released in 2023 by CCF Studios. It's a multichapter game directly based on escape rooms, and it still receives regular updates. There are several modes and you can choose to play solo. The game has you traverse several levels, uncovering the secret of Leisterez. 

ROBLOX Description

"In this Escape Room inspired game, uncover the sinister secret of Leisterez as you escape multiple life-or-death scenarios: a runaway train, an abandoned train tunnel, a mysterious underground bunker, a research lab, abandoned headquarters... why is this happening? Who set all this up? Find out now! 

If the Standard Difficulty is too frustrating, there are Beginner Modes for Chapters 1 - 3, featuring entirely reworked puzzles to be more accessible to those who are younger or just new to Escape Rooms! 

Available for groups of 1-4 Players, but we recommend playing in a group for the best experience! 

[Recommended you play with a pencil and paper! Writing things down might be helpful]"

ELEVATOR HITCH

Summary

Elevator Hitch is an indie horror puzzle game released in September 2022 for the Spooktober Annual Visual Novel Jam by Studio Investigrave. It's a visual novel made in RPG Maker MV based on escape rooms, with 2.5D/3D elements.

Itch.io Description

"Elevator Hitch is a short 2.5D surreal horror/escape room visual novel with point-and-click and puzzle elements following the story of two co-workers suddenly finding themselves stuck together in a "Perfectly Normal" 70s office elevator. 

They must explore each liminal-looking floor and find a way to

get off the elevator to their actual destinations."

Comments

THE DOOR

Summary

THE DOOR is an indie 3D puzzle released in 2020 by ARBlox, initially released on itch.io as a demo, but it never got anywhere further than a coming soon page on Steam due to a lack of funding.

Its initial itch.io description reads "THE DOOR is an innovative escape room game with teleportation, story and puzzles. 

"As you go through a door you encounter a beautiful landscape . You meet a confused but friendly robot. It joins you and helps you solve puzzles that  that may lead you to the big exit in the sky.”

If you like atmospheric games with story, puzzles and more than one twist - THE DOOR is likely a game for you."

Steam Description

"THE DOOR is a unique story-puzzle with teleportation.

Travel through stunning landscapes with your confused robot friend, Cell44, and help her escape "the Big Thing in the Sky."

STORY:

Upon discovering and going through a secret digital door, you find yourself trapped in an alternate world together with a slightly needy, flying robot.

Guided by the robot, you must find your way home through a series of doors and puzzles leading to the legendary exit in the sky.

But, something is amiss: The omnipresent structure floating in the sky seems aware of your presence.

What is it's intention, what is it doing here? And is there a way out of here?

GAMEPLAY:

You will find uniquely crafted door puzzles and classic puzzle mechanics in THE DOOR.

Trigger mechanisms are activated to unlock secrets. Perspective puzzles are solved to create objects which you must find the right purpose for. Objects are scaled and re-scaled to suit new purposes. The world and it's light is manipulated by your input, as day changes into night, and night chances into a psychedelic environment. Each new door has a unique puzzle attached to it.

Open THE DOOR to continue, and experience the beautiful world and the story unfold."

A GDD (Game Design Document) is a descriptive software design document detailing the design of a video game and serving as a blueprint. It is essentially like a sort of bible. It is used often in the game industry to organize efforts and as a guiding vision throughout the game's development, made as a collaboration between the game dev team's designers, artists, and programmers.

As an example of a GDD, this is the DOOM bible.

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart illustrating a project's schedule in which a series of horizontal lines shows the amount of work done or production completed in certain periods of time in relation to the amount planned for those periods.

Kayleigh made us a Gantt chart using teamgantt. We didn't end up using the site or this chart any further, but it gave us an understanding of the method.

In the end, we ended up using a similar function in our Miro board. It felt a lot easier to use, and it lacked the limitations that put us off teamgaant in the first place.

TRELLO/KANBAN BOARD

Trello uses the Kanban method, which visualizes and organizes work and progress into different columns, typically labelled like "To-Do", "In Progress", "In Review", and "Done". A Kanban board helps to identify bottlenecks and over-commitments, overall helping to optimize workflow. 

Trello will probably be the method we end up using. We agreed unanimously on it, the team is overall more familiar with it. It's simple and approachable.

SCRUM

"Scrum is an agile project management framework that helps teams structure and manage their work through a set of values, principles, and practices. Scrum encourages teams to learn through experiences, self-organize while working on a problem, and reflect on their wins and losses to continuously improve."

SPRINT

"The key difference between a Sprint versus Scrum is that Scrum is an Agile product development framework, while a sprint is a fixed-length development cycle Scrum teams use to incrementally develop a product. Sprints are a part of Scrum."

WATERFALL

"The Waterfall methodology — also known as the Waterfall model — is a sequential development process that flows like a waterfall through all phases of a project (analysis, design, development, and testing, for example), with each phase completely wrapping up before the next phase begins."

We were told to put together a development roadmap. It didn't differ too much from the template/example we were given, since it was pretty straight forward, but it's good to have something to organize different stages of work.

I recreated the physical roadmap in Miro, allowing for a clearer and neater look. I've also included the roles we've decided on.

Joshua Ramos Fernandes - Artist, Concept Artist, 3D Modeller (CHARACTER),

Programmer

Kayleigh Steeples - Concept Artist, Writer, Sound Designer

Caine Saunders - Concept Writer, Game Designer, Level Designer, Programmer

Emma Adamson - Concept Artist, Environmental Design, 3D Modeller

(OBJECT/DECOR)

The game is officially titled "PITFALL".

Chidera

"I think the toxic words could be censored but overall a good game"

(?)

Zephyr

"Good concept

Great art to represent the game

Good amount of research"

Theo

"I love the story concept

Would love to see more examples from other games"

Lily

"Using an incomplete game is an interesting way to use the 3D brief

Well thought out idea with solid concepts

Maybe try to clarify more about the storyline"

Alex

"Overall Concept: Mineshaft Escape has a compelling premise that can captivate players with its sense of adventure and urgency. The idea of navigating through a mineshaft to escape adds a thrilling element that can keep players engaged.

Blank Slate Player: The decision to design the game with a blank slate player is excellent. This approach allows players to project themselves onto the character, making the experience more immersive. It also provides a flexible foundation for players to develop their own strategies and solutions, enhancing the game's replay ability.

Peer Pressure Dynamics: Incorporating elements of peer pressure into the gameplay is a brilliant move. This resonates deeply with players, as everyone has experienced peer pressure at some point. By weaving this theme into the game, you create relatable scenarios that can evoke strong emotional responses and drive player engagement. It also adds a layer of psychological complexity, making the game more than just a physical escape but also a mental challenge.

Suggestions for Improvement:

Narrative Depth: Consider adding more narrative elements to give context to the player's journey. Background stories or occasional in-game dialogues can enrich the player's experience and make the escape feel more meaningful.

Visual and Audio Cues: Enhance the atmosphere with detailed visuals and immersive sound effects. The claustrophobic environment of a mineshaft can be accentuated with dim lightning, echoing footsteps, and distant sounds of collapsing tunnels."

MAIN PROTAGONIST (KAYLEIGH STEEPLES)

Kayleigh was assigned the task of designing the main protagonist. They are nameless, and designed to be a blank slate for the player to project on. This is the initial concept drawing she made for them.

Later, I sketched this design, subtly tweaking some aspects to make it slightly more gender-neutral. Particularly, making the hair longer, among smaller details.

A later sketch by Kayleigh.

Here is a sprite I made for the character before we realized the brief was to make a 3D game.

Here's a moodboard Kayleigh provided.

MIA (KAYLEIGH STEEPLES)

Kayleigh was assigned the task of designing one of four of the protagonist's friends. She named this character "Mia." This character was initially described as a "cutie," and a "brat."

Here's the initial sketch and final design.

Here are some sketches I made of the design. I didn't tweak anything about it like I did the player.

Here's a moodboard Kayleigh provided.

DAMIAN (CAINE SAUNDERS)

Caine was assigned the task of designing one of four of the protagonist's friends. He named this character "Damian." Since Caine isn't an artist, he provided a description and I made an interpretation of it.

Here is his initial description.

And my illustration.

Here's a moodboard provided.

MC AND MIA COLORED CONCEPTS (JOSHUA RAMOS FERNANDES)

I've tasked myself to draw full body, colored concepts for the protagonist and their friends. So far, I've only done the MC and Mia.

FLEUR (EMMA ADAMSON)

Emma was assigned the task of designing one of four of the protagonist's friends. She named this character "Fleur." She didn't illustrate her concept, so I made an interpretation of her written description. This character was described as the nerd of the group, academically gifted.

Here is her initial description.

And my illustration.

Here's a moodboard Emma provided.

STORY PANEL STORYBOARD (JOSHUA RAMOS FERNANDES)

I've tasked myself to storyboard the intro story panels and provide a rough guideline for Kayleigh to write proper dialogue lines.

GABY (JOSHUA RAMOS FERNANDES)

I was assigned the task of designing one of four of the protagonist's friends. I named this character "Gaby." This character was initially described as a the caring and responsible one, sharing a spot with Fleur as the smartest of the group.

Here's my initial sketch and final design.

COLORED CHARACTER CONCEPTS (JOSHUA RAMOS FERNANDES)

I've tasked myself to draw full body, colored concepts for the protagonist and their friends.

COMMUNICATION VIA MICROSOFT TEAMS

Screenshots from Kayleigh's perspective.

30/09/2024 7:25 PM - DISCORD MEETING

On the 30th of September, at 7:25 PM, we hosted a team meeting in our Discord development group chat. This call lasted for about 4 hours. I was the one who initiated the call, "Mr. Hallowigi" as mentioned below.

Main participants were me and Kayleigh. Emma showed up for about 5 or 10 minutes. Caine's computer was broken at the time and he was unable to join. Regardless, we left them notes.

SCRUM MEETINGS

Kayleigh was appointed "Scrum Master".

Everyone in the team was on totally different pages, and things were all over the place, so remedy this, I decided to write up a quick Master Doc to organize everything we had so far into something cohesive and simple. Think of it like a base for the GDD, since we also did use it to write up a proper, more detailed GDD.

Here is the embedded Google Doc.

(Click the door to go to its respective page!)