During this week, the team has been starting build out major components of the game. We’ve created the level block outs for the two inner parts of the Vampire temple as well as the basic functionality of out two main mechanics; Shadow Step and Sixth Sense:
Sixth Sense:
Sixth Sense (Holding Alt) : Enhances the Dhampir’s perception, revealing hidden objects, traps, enemies, and secret paths.
- Max Duration: Unlimited as long as Alt is held.
- Cooldown: None.
Shadow Step:
Shadow Step (Q): The Dhampir can temporarily merge with the shadows, becoming invisible and hard to be detected.
- Max Duration: 15 seconds (adjustable based on level difficulty)
- Cooldown: 5 seconds (adjustable)
- Dashing Mechanic:
- Input: The player presses Q to trigger the dash to the closest shadow.
- Conditions:
- The player must be within a specific dash range.
- The shadow must be within the camera’s field of view.
- No dash if the player is already inside the shadow or within a very short distance from it (e.g. less than 1 meter). In this case, the player will enter Shadow Step mode directly without movement.
- There a UI Indicator to show when a deep shadow area is available for dashing
- Condition: Only works in designated deep shadow areas marked in the environment.
- Note: If the player remains in Shadow Step beyond 15 seconds, they will become visible again.
Level Design:
Within the temple there are two main floors. Floor 1, as depicted below, highlights each of the basic puzzles and mechanics. 1-A showcases the traps and the Sixth Sense feature, 1-B teaches the player to crouch which is will help augment Shadow Step and Sixth Sense, 1-C teaches Shadow Step, 1-D is a safe room, 1-E and 1-F have combine all skills to reach the final goal in 1-G.
Floor 2 is where the players will fill their final task using the skills they’ve learned in Floor 1.
Design Issues:
Our current design sets the player up to achieve two goal: free the prisoner and find the map, however, those goals aren’t linked and make the flow of Floor 2 fold over itself. To combat this, we are considering either rearranging the bottom level or changing the goals.
Next Steps:
We are doing our first playtest next Tuesday!! Hurray!! Here we will be looking to see if our mechanics make sense to the player and if they harmonize well together. We will also be trying to address our current design issues.