Heading North

Overview

Studio: Irish Goodbye Games
Duration of work: Ongoing
Tools Used: Unreal Engine, JIRA, Excel
Team Size: 4
Main Roles: Game Designer & Producer
Other Roles: Narrative Designer

In Heading North you play as Ella, trapped in an arena with no memory and one mission: escape by any means necessary. Heading North is a third-person shooter focused on fluid, satisfying movement, puzzle-solving, and a rich narrative experience that the player will direct.

Structure

The player will traverse through constructed environments designed to test the strengths of Ella.

The flowchart illustrates the basic gameplay loop. The large arena Ella is trapped in is composed of smaller, separate sections (levels) that the player will linearly progress through.

Each level of the arena will have goals from both narrative and mechanical standpoints to provide the player with a challenge in exploring the environment and defeating enemies. To progress to the next level, the player must find a prism hidden inside a cache. Inserting the prism into a slot by the exit door will cause the door to open and allow the player to proceed.

A shelter will mark a "safe zone" in a level. While at the shelter, the player can save their progress, restore their health, and encounter story beats. Robot enemies cannot access the shelter area.

design pillars

FLUID EXPLORATION IN DISTANTLY-FAMILIAR WORLD

Ella will be an extremely fluid character to control. Taking inspiration from the Fortnite movement system, the player will be able to run, jump, slide, and mantle up ledges in a dynamic and satisfying way. Each level will be designed to incorporate this movement system while allowing for player problem-solving and intuition.

The arena will be strewn with ancient ruins contrasted by sterile scaffolding weaving throughout them. Players must navigate the ruins to find the cache, using ropes left hanging, movable boxes, grapple-hook points, and tightropes. The player may use their weaponry at points to change the environment around them, such as shooting a piece of scaffolding to allow for passage.

COMBAT TO TEST PHYSICAL LIMITS

The arena is designed to understand what made Ella an outstanding rebel leader that nearly took down a tyrannical government. The enemies will be designed to increasingly test the strengths and wits of the player. Initially, small robot creatures will be placed to patrol and attack the player. As the player learns to control the character, begins to understand timing, and gains skill in the combat, the enemies will in turn be more difficult to face. Strong robot bears that charge at the player, swift robots that fly and dive down to attack, and eventually androids imitating the appearance of humans.

The combat will focus on incorporating movement while shooting, akin to Titanfall 2 and Fortnite. The player will start with a weaker weapon, like a pistol, and gain stronger weapons such as rifles as they progress through the levels of the arena. Players can jump against walls or grapple up on top of ledges to gain a height advantage over their enemies, or dodge smoothly out of the way to get the perfect window of opportunity to strike. The levels will be designed to provide cover and scalable objects that the player can utilise to provide them advantages.

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR EXPLORING A FRAGMENTED NARRATIVE

A tyrannical government that almost lost it all to a rebel group, gathered those who led the rebellion and placed them in various sections of a giant arena. They want to understand what made these rebels stronger than their top soldiers and will be subjecting them to challenges to test their limits. This arena was previously used to punish captured rebels, but never to this extent.

Ella, the leader of the rebellion, was captured and placed in the arena. She has no idea of the previous power she held, or the people she worked with. She will meet Killian in the arena, whom she builds trust and travels through the arena with. As Ella rests, parts of her memories return to her, visions of Killian and other rebels. While Ella begins to remember her relationship with Killian, he knows that he was the betrayer that led to her capture by the government.

The player will find remnants of people who have been in the arena before Ella, with items such as torn pieces of clothing, directions carved into trees, and other clues. As Ella travels through the sections of the arena, she will encounter characters that will be up to the player on whether to trust or not.

software

Heading North will be developed using the latest edition of Unreal Engine which, as of writing, is 5.4.1. The Unreal Engine is quickly becoming one of the most used tools across the video game industry, and allowing our team to become versed in it would expand the opportunities available to us. The engine allows for quick iteration in 3D projects, and with the Blueprint visual coding system, our entire team can work in-engine without needing a strong coding background.

For the creation of 3D assets, the team will use Blender. Blender is free and open source, allowing the team to keep the cost of production low. Blender is becoming more-commonly used throughout the video game industry, being seen used at studios such as Bungie and Ubisoft.

JIRA will be used as the task tracking software for the team. As JIRA is the industry standard, the team wishes to become more acquainted with using it. One member of the team has experience fully leading a project through using JIRA, and will be able to share their knowledge and introduce the software to the others.

Development

Heading North is currently in development. We expect to take two-three months to complete the prototype.

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