The goal of this project was to create a video game prototype on PS Vita in 12 weeks and in the closing weeks pitch it to Sony producer, Mark Sample and Head of Sony's Academic Development, Dr. Maria Stukoff. My team consisted of a producer, an artist, two programmers and two designers (one of which being myself). The game was built using the Unity3D engine.
A Clockwork Disaster is a 2D Puzzle Platformer game in which the player takes on the role of a clock-like creation in order to save their creator who has gone missing. The player uses Time Manipulation abilities to overcome environmental obstacles and dangers in the fantasy driven world in which it is set. These abilites are controlled using the PS Vita's Rear TouchPad and TouchScreen. During the course of gameplay the player unlocks new abilities and travels to different environments to find clues on the creators whereabouts.
A Clockwork Disaster for Sony's Playstation Vita
My primary role in the development of this prototype was Level Designer but I was involved in the game's full design from start to finish. My responsibility was to create a fun and engaging experience which utilised our game mechanics of speeding up and slowing down time.
Check out a snippet of gameplay:
Level Design Process
Concept
The first concept for A Clockwork Disaster was set in an industrial level in which their would be a lot of mechanical creations to emphasise the world having been created by some being alongside the character itself. However, despite the inital concept fitting with the theme of the game it was decided it would tarnish the time manipulation mechanics creativity being subject to levers and buttons.
I worked very closely with my artist who had strong skills in concept art to capture a vision of what the game was going to look like. I quickly sketched up a puzzle involving organic objects and asked him to paint over it as shown below. My thoughts here were to involve objects which were moving such as rocks falling into quicksand and the only way to cross the gap was to slow them down to create stepping stones for the player to jump on.
One of the major concepts of A Clockwork Disaster is having control over aging and playing with the idea of life cycles. This is what gave me the idea to create a very organic level involving a lot of vegetation in which some plant life would rot away and never come back or alternatively, rot, plant their seeds and re-grow, hense the life cycles. After consulting with my artist about the look and feel of the level I began prototyping puzzles which would be used to construct and glue together a level.
Puzzle Design
I decided to try a new way of prototyping ideas which would be fast, quick and easy to deliver to my team for them to critique. I used MS PowerPoint to create animations of puzzles with their fail and win states. I presented the prototypes to the team and we chose them together by identifying which were strong, weak or needed work. This process was iterated upon three times before I moved onto printing out the puzzles and pinning them to board in order to arrange them into a coherent level while keeping in mind the pacing and transitioning within the level (this formed the floor plan).
When I was happy with the floor plan layout I then began to block out the level in Unity3D using some inital assets my artist had produced by this point.
First Frame of PowerPoint Animation
Initial Blockout: Beginning of Level
During the blockout stage it was important to focus on the positioning and spacing of objects and geometry. I focused on creating lines which would lead the player through the level without them getting lost. During the blockout stages, the programmers were producing prefabs with behaviours such as the falling rocks. At this stage of the project I was able to test some areas and mess around with the prefabs which had been given to me. This way I was able to add gameplay to the level to start testing if it was fun or not. This process took a while to pin down after a couple weeks of iterations and playtests.
Section 1 (start)
At the beginning of the level the player is presented with falling rocks which fall into some quick sand. As they hit the quicksand they sink slowly but not slow enough for the player to jump across in time. By using the slow down mechanic here the player learns that slowing down time effects the environment. The clock in the background as well as an overlay helps to communicate the effect on the environment. If the player fails and falls into the quicksand it will result in death where they will respawn at checkpoint 1, however if they use the slow down mechanic then they will make it to the other side.
Section 2
In this section the player is presented with a similar obstacle but they are rewarded if they are successful. The idea is to make it across the two falling stones with a stationary stone in the middle. The player is rewarded with a collectable piece. If they fail the player can still progress however they leave behind the collectable.
Section 3
As the two paths merge into one, the player is now faced with a reaction challenge. As the player passes the checkpoint and then drops down from the ledge, the ceiling begins to collapse. The player must slow down time in order to make it to the other side where they are forced to take a leap of faith into the slow and fast clouds.
Section 4
As the player takes a leap of faith, they are falling slowly through the slow clouds. The player has to avoid time warps (enemies) or they will get sucked in and spat back out at the last checkpoint. When the player reaches the purple cloud, known as a fast cloud, they are projected through the roof of a cave where they crash through and find themselves picking up a new time manipulation ability giving them the power to speed up time locally.
Section 5
When the player picks up the speedup time ability, a pop up bubble appears showing them how to use the new mechanic. The player is then forced to decay the vine in front of them in order to get out of the trapped environment. As they progress forward, the player has to decay more vines but this time they have to avoid the enemies while doing it.
Section 6
Here the player is presented with the next puzzle. The player cannot proceed because a stone-like bridge needs to be lowered. This forces the player to explore this new area where they learn how to decay and grow trees with the speed-up ability. By using the trees they can climb to the platform where a purple and yellow plant is keeping the bridge from falling down. Once the player decays the plant the bridge falls down and the player can make their way back up using the tree to the left. There is also a collectable the player can find in this area if they keep their eyes peeled.
Section 7
The player is now presented with a slightly more difficult challenge where they can combine both abilities. The player has to decay the vines to get past but they then need to slow the platforms in order to jump from platform to platform. This utilises what the player has learned thus far… with one more challenge to come.
Section 8 (end)
This last section is the final challenge to the level. The player has to decay and grow the tree and make their way up to the green and purple plant. There’s a purple piece of fruit expanding and detracting in size drawing the players attention to it. The player has to then use the speed up ability to grow the piece of fruit, as the fruit gets bigger and bigger it detaches from the plant and rolls down the hill, knocking down the brittle rock wall in its path allowing the player to progress on to the end where they enter a narrow tunnel and it fades to black.
Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to view my project. I'll leave you with a gameplay video demonstrating the full level.
