"Korine - Hold on to Your Hats" is a 2.5D action-adventure game with a focus on a skill-based combat and puzzle system and charming interactions with quirky characters. The humorously told story evolves around strange hats granting the player new abilities and quirky villagers who care more about their hobbies than an approaching catastrophe. Additionally, topics as fear, responsibility, and escapism from reality are addressed with the intention to appeal in particular to young adults that are struggling with these topics as well. While the 3D fantasy environment with its beautiful sprites, optional paths, and collectibles that offer a deeper insight into the story is aimed to satisfy players with exploration and escapism motivations.
The following decisions were made with future marketability in mind and aim to improve visual attractiveness, relatability, and share-ability of marketing content:
3D world with 2D sprites
As the visuals are usually the first thing people observe about a new game it is important to set apart from other games in this regard in order to raise as much awareness for the game as possible. As we are a team without 3D artists and a tile-based 2D approach as the old "The Legend of Zelda"-titles had comes with a lot of constraints on level design, visual composition, and asset creation we decided to use a perspective camera in a 3D world and 2D sprites. This grants us not only more creative freedom but also some perspective effects which with a thoughtful level design will help us in the creation of beautiful gifs that stand out. We are not aware of another game in the same genre using this 2.5D approach which makes the implementation a risk but also helps us to set ourselves apart. The attractiveness this approach to 2.5D has on potential customers is obvious when looking at consumer attention and feedback for games like "Knights and Bikes" which had a successful campaign on Kickstarter and "Mineko's Night Market" which has more than 14k followers on Twitter.
Quirky characters and dialogs
As non-budget marketing usually evolves around posting on social media and it is quite difficult to build an audience for a first game we need to have attractive content to post which in a best-case-scenario is able to provide value on its own. This can be reached through posting funny/relatable content that people want to repost because they identify with it or want to share a laugh with their friends. Realizing this strategy becomes easier when the game itself consists at least partially of such content. Successful examples of this strategy are "Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator" (Gray, 2018) and "Boyfriend Dungeon" (Tran, 2019) who both also presented this strategy in their respective GDC talks.
Fantasy Story addressing real-world mental health issues
Same as the quirky characters and dialogs this lets us create relatable content for social media posts and moreover as the story addresses topics like struggles, responsibility, and stress which we as a team experience in the development process as well might achieve to present ourselves human and approachable in contrast to only appear as the abstract concept of a developer studio. Multiple sources claim that this personal approach is one of the only one's working for marketing on Reddit and overall promotes long-term customer loyalty. Mixing these real topics with a quirky fantasy world allows us to balance the mood. This approach already worked for games like "Celeste" and "Night in the Woods" and the Netflix series "Bojack Horseman".
We aim to make the game quirky and charming to make it interesting to explore and engage with and to be able to talk about serious topics in an environment that is still distant enough from reality to make the game not too heavy-handed. To contrast the occasional seriousness we want to have funny moments as well we primarily want to reach this through an otherworldly and strange setting as well as sometimes exaggerated characters, story plots, and designs and not necessarily through jokes.
Easy approachable
We believe that the story and setting of our game have the potential to appeal to many different players, so we want to implement a learning curve that is also suitable for players without extensive gaming experience. We want to reach this goal where possible by introducing mechanics and skill application-cases one by one and without explicitly telling the player solutions or only providing but by letting the player learn and discover solutions on their own.
Encourage exploring
We want to give the player the opportunity to explore and discover the game on their own. Therefore we want to build environments with additional pathways aside from the main one and fill them with optional collectibles, challenges, and beautiful locations without giving extensive hints about their locations.
Our focus group concentrates specifically on fans of "The Legend of Zelda"-series or similar action-adventures, as these are our primary references for our skill-based puzzle and combat system, and thus pose as our anchor in marketing. Our story aims to be relatable to those experiencing stress and feeling overburdened, which we guess is especially true for young adults. At the same time, the story is set in a fantasy world quite different from ours and provides a lot of light-hearted and quirky dialog as well so that we hope to be attractive to players with the escapism motivation as well. That this balancing act between seriousness and escapism works was already shown by the success of A Short Hike by adamgryu. Additionally, we aim to fill the world with collectibles and branching paths to gain attractiveness for players with the discovery motivation. We hope to increase the appeal of the game for players with the escapism and discovery motivation even more by laying importance on an attractive and unique design of the environments and characters.
The gameplay is closely inspired by the older "The Legend of Zelda" titles played from a fixed 3/4 perspective like, for example, "A Link to the Past", "Link's Awakening" and "Minish Cap". Like these games, we already want to have a mix of gameplay-heavy phases consisting out of skill-based fighting and puzzle-solving and narrative-heavy phases and have them separated through different locations.
These locations will in our case be
The village where the major part of narrative progress will take place and the player can talk to villagers to get to know more about their personal stories and has the option to influence the village through small decisions and tasks.
The outside area which the player can explore to find items for side quests or the next ruin and requires fighting and some smaller skill-based interactions with the environment.
The ruins which revolve around a lot of fighting and puzzle-solving and contain the crystals required for progression in the main story.
Another similarity is that the skill-based combat and puzzle systems depend on the collection of non-consumable items which in our case are hats and in contrast to the "The Legend of Zelda"-games will not be collected in the gameplay-heavy part of the game but the village. Other differences are the 2.5D approach we've chosen and our health system.
Additional games that could be considered inspirations aside from other "The Legend of Zelda"-titles could be "Moonlighter", "Ittle Dew", "Hyperlight Drifter", "Kamiko", "Blossom Tales", "Anodyne", "Oceanhorn - Monster of the Uncharted Seas", "Last Moon" (still in development) and "Evoland 2" which all to some degree seem to be also inspired by the "The Legend of Zelda"-series and therefore share some similarities to the game we want to make.
Fig. 1: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Village (Grezzo, 2019a)
Fig. 2: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - "Bottle Grotto" (Grezzo, 2019b)
Our visuals at least in regard to perspective and arrangement are inspired by games like "Mineko's Night Market", "The Wild at Heart", "Knights and Bikes" and "Nugget & Penny’s Adventure Machine" from which only the last one got released till now. All of these games have the same 2.5D approach as we have: 2D sprites in a 3D world. As already mentioned in section1.2 Strategic Objectiveswe hope to improve the visual attractiveness through this approach and could already observe some of the visual benefits this approach had in the above-mentioned games. We can use their level design and technical implementations which they shared insights on in dev logs to guide our own implementation. Other games with this 2.5D approach are "Don't Starve" and "Bug Fables".
¶ 1.6.3 Story-Wise (Mental Health Topics portrayed in a fantasy-world)
Fig. 7: Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall, 2017)
Fig. 8: Celeste (Thorson & Berry, 2018)
Fig. 9: Heartbound (Pirate Software, 2018)
As already mentioned in section 1.2 Strategic Objectives we aim for our story to convey coping with extensive stress in order for others to relate but utilize a somewhat absurd unrealistic setting in order to make the game not too heavy-hearted. Games with a similar approach that could be used as references are "Celeste", "Night in the Woods" and "Heartbound" although our game is intended to be still a little more lighthearted than those games. Therefore A Short Hike might be a better reference as it also thematizes mental health in regards to relaxation problems and escapism and additionally also has a more quirky and relaxed side to it. This allows the player to play the game either to relate to the mental state of the protagonist or to escape themself.
The player can move freely in any direction but animations will only be available in 6 directions (Up, Down, Up-Left, Up-Right, Down-Left, Down-Right).
The player will be able to collect 3 hats in the course of the main storyline each giving the player two new abilities to apply in fights and puzzles. Each hat comes with two abilities: one for a short and one for long pressing of the hat action button.
The player is shielded from enemies through a reloadable energy shield. When the player gets hit while the shield is active the player remains unharmed and the shield will start automatically to reload itself. If the player takes another hit during the reloading time they will respawn on the last checkpoint they passed. In the ruins the player is intended to respawn at their beginning or if it proves necessary at a checkpoint halfway through the ruins to make this process less frustrating for the player they can open shortcuts on their way through the ruins that allow them faster progression through the ruins after respawning. From the point of narrative the process of "dying" will be regarded as the protagonist panicking and imagining the worst possible outcome for their adventure.
We aim to give the player freedom to figure most information out on their own either through exploring or through optional dialogs. We, however, want to give the player enough information to not be completely lost when coming back to the game after a while. Therefore we want to display a hideable note on the HUD displaying the current task of the main storyline and provide an inventory with fixed places for each collectible item in order to remind the player what items they already have, give a hint about what still needs to be found and generally provide an overview of progression. Additionally, we will provide maps for the outside area and the ruins which however are not aimed to disclose too detailed information as we want to use them to give the player a rough hint about their position and not to highlight small passages and positions of collectibles.
Our dialog is aimed to support minor decisions without making them a part of the main narrative and will be visualized through in-game speech bubbles that utilize character portrays and different speech bubble outlines to convey the emotions of the speaker.
The enemies of our game, for the most part, will be designed to make the player use the hat abilities and therefore can only be defeated or will be much easier defeated through the usage of a certain ability. Additionally, it needs to be considered that because of the health system which lets the player only take one hit enemies can't be distinguished by their ability to make more damage and that the enemy amount in one place needs to be kept quite low in order to not make the game too hard. To still provide a variety of enemies we try to also utilize enemy abilities that not inflict damage on the player but, for example, slow them down. This additionally allows us to provide more diverse challenges by placing enemies with different abilities together.
As in "The Legend of Zelda"-series we also want to provide breaks between fights by letting the player solve puzzles. Same as in our inspiration they will vary strongly in the challenge they provide. Because of that, we will divide them into soft and hard puzzles. Soft Puzzles consist of reusable elements and concepts like, for example, an element that can activate by hitting it with the staff and triggers a reaction in the level. These elements can are used to fill rooms with different combinations of them and to let the player explore new rooms and figure out which elements need to be triggered in which order. In contrast, hard puzzles require the player to understand their fixed rules and logic and consist of multiple elements only designed for the specific puzzles.
A sideways wheel that can be turned by walking against the handles sticking out at its side.
AND and XOR elements which can be used to connect multiple other switches.
Machines that can be slowed down by placing a robot next to them.
Switches that are connected to cables. The player needs to observe which cable leads to the mechanism they want to activate.
Cylinders can be filled with the tea projectiles.
A rope that can be cut through to let something fall down.
A lever that can be pulled with the twine hat.
Floor tiles that get pushed down when the player stands on them.
¶ 2.5.2 Hard Puzzle Example: Symmetric Rune Puzzle
Basics
The puzzle consists of a rectangular field of floor tiles (runes).
The number of runes can vary depending on level.
It contains a start and a goal field.
The player has to find the right way to the exit so that it opens.
If the player chooses the wrong way, the exit remains closed.
There can be one or more valid paths.
Fig. 14: A basic rune field showing only the first valid pair.
The Rune field
The runes show different symbols.
Each symbol is available in two colors to identify a valid pair.
The runes are automatically activated when the player walks over them.
Fig. 15: A rune field using 3 different symbols in two colors.
Find a valid way
The first valid pair contains the start and destination fields because they show the same symbol in different colors.
The target field shows the counterpart of the symbol on the start field.
When the player walks on the start field, the destination field is activated automatically as it is its counterpart.
A valid counterpart always shows the same symbol in a different color.
Starting from the start field, the player can choose which adjacent tile is to be entered next (top, right, bottom).
The rune that is activated must have a counterpart that is adjacent to the last activated counterpart.
The direction in which the player walks is independent of the direction of the adjacent counterpart. For example, the player can run upwards if a valid counterpart is below the last activated counterpart.
A valid path only includes floor tiles that have valid and adjacent counterparts.
The path is complete if the last activated plate is immediately adjacent to its counterpart.
The player cannot activate a diagonally lying rune.
Switch
With the tea hat, a projectile can be fired to activate a switch adjacent to the rune field.
If the switch is activated, the symbol of a base plate changes to allow a new valid path.
The switch can only be activated, if all floor plates that have been activated so far have adjacent counter pairs.
Fig. 16: A rune field with only one valid way for the player consisting out of 2 valid pairs.
This sidequest allows the player to influence the appearance of the village by placing decorational items that stand in connection to the upcoming festival. These items need to be created by the tinkerer who requires mutation particles that are left behind by defeated monsters or can be gathered from special plants. This gives the player another incentive to explore their environment and encourages them to engage in fights rather than just run past enemies. The player can buy each decorational item multiple times and can place them at one of the multiple designated spots across the village. To prevent the player from finishing this quest right away and therefore losing incentive to collect further mutation particles throughout the rest of the game the second iteration of this mechanic will add different decoration sizes which can only be unlocked by finding special blueprints allowing the tinkerer to create new items. Additionally, we might add special parts the player needs to collect for unique decorational pieces.
This sidequest allows the player to gain more information about the background story of the aliens which have built the ruins by collecting journal entries that can be found throughout and near the ruins.
This sidequest allows the player to gain more information about the alien guy by bringing them items they asked for and eventually being invited into their house where the player can see what the alien guy wanted the stuff for.
Challenges the player can directly approach and finish. The motivation stems from the immediate feedback the player gets.
Solve puzzle
Defeat Enemy
Activate switch
Gather information
Finish task of current quest
Mid-Term Goals
The current challenge which motivates the player through the observable progression they obtain by finishing it. Be it by unlocking new areas, gaining new abilities, or having a new item in the inventory.
Traverse ruin (room)
Get new hat
Long-Term Goals
The challenge of the game as a whole which motivates the player through providing more challenges and open questions in the storyline that only will find closure at its end.
Save the world
Fill the inventory
Overcome all challenges
Optional Goals
Challenges that are optional and that the player can solve to enhance their perceived impact on the game world and acquiring more knowledge about the game world.
Our story foremost aims to be relatable by portraying real-world struggles as already mentioned in 1.2 Strategic Objectives. Therefore we see the task of the protagonist to save the world as an exaggerated portrayal of being overwhelmed with given responsibility which comes with the fear of failing, questioning the own competence, and feeling overburdened while feeling the need to prove oneself. This stands in contrast to the villagers who ignore their responsibility and only focus on their hobbies and therefore risking the end of the world. In the end, the hero will not be able to save the world by themselves and grows out of their own fears when trying to calm down the village that has started to acknowledge the danger and which in turn helps the protagonist to fulfill their task. This aims to convey two messages: 1) that fear is something normal that can even help to some degree and 2) that even though one might be not completely suited to complete a task they will be able to grow from the experience and might be able to still fulfill their task with the help of others.
Our protagonist that can be named by the player but has the default name 'Korine' is aimed to have an androgynous-leaning appearance and is called by gender-unspecific pronouns throughout the game.
Personality
Their dream is to help others and prove themself but they tend to question their own aptitude for most tasks because of failures in their past on which they're still quite hung upon. This insecurity and their tendency to ramble about everything that could lead to the failure of are the reasons why not many people ask them for help. However, if they get assigned a task by someone and can't convince them to find someone else they are quite determined to fulfil their expectations and make sure that their trust was justified. Unfortunately, this seriousness often leads them to be stressed, overthink, and get distracted by their own fears which is the reason why they keep failing. Aside from their insecurities, they are open-minded and interested to learn about a lot of topics which made them invested in the interests and achievements of others. As they often don't trust themself to get the same results as others they tend to cheer others on instead of engaging themselves. When they are alone they try to self-improvement by trying to boost their self-confidence, learning, and training.
Fig. 20: Korine - the protagonist
Quote
Are you really sure you want to trust me with that much responsibility? I mean, I could imagine I might be able to do it but at the same time I can come up with at least 53 scenario of failure and one of them isn't pretty at all ...
The hatmaker is the only villager that is not completely fearless and gets used as a mentor figure who assigns the protagonist with tasks and is to some degree used to let them reflect on their fears of failure.
Personality
Someone that is thinking and talking a mile a minute and jumps from one topic to another while doing so. He usually is found smiling and sputtering entertaining nonsense but unknown to others he often tries his hardest to hide his negative thoughts and fears behind this facade to avoid worrying others and in the slight hope to distract himself from his problems. While he often suffers under his ever-running mind it also helps him with the creation of hats that not only have a unique and exciting design but are also perfectly tailored to the wearer in every aspect. Many people of the village are quick to chuckle at his antics but tend to keep a distance as they find him to get quite distracting and annoying at times. He noticed but doesn't mind too much as he is content in making them happy through the creation of his hats and is thankful for the time he has to explore his own mind. While he loves his job he's frightened that a small missed detail in the making of a hat which then could make the wearer unhappy or sabotage the mission of the one that is to gather the crystals. Since he calmed down he chooses his words - of which he has many through his years of non-stop talking - more carefully and manipulates the protagonist to help him as his fears are lessened but still strong enough to keep him from taking action himself. On the other side, he also tries to talk them out of their fears while coming to terms with his own.
Quote
So listen here: This clock might be a clock and unhelpful and fear inducing and overall just a jerk but there is also this very nice mechanism that will help us to prevent everything going down the drain! We just need to activate it and tada: The world is saved!
A grumpy and airheaded teenage girl that works on her anger problem by drinking a lot of tea. She appreciates it so much that she even drinks it when it again has gotten way too strong due to her spacing out while preparing it. Despite her rough nature, she likes to wear and possess a lot of cute things and beats up anyone that even dares to comment on the contrast to her personality. In general, she alternates between an absent-minded state, short-lived dialogue, and fits of rage.
Quote
Don't you dare looking down on me because of my hobby! You think this is all just waiting and tea drinking? Did you ever lived through the pain of using wrong-temperatured water and seeing your tea leaves losing all of their potential greatness? You barbarian probably didn't even know that you need different temperatures for different blends, am I right? So who are you again to stand there and look at me like tea preparation and drinking isn't a real hobby?
A middle-aged always-tired man that tends to neglect his personal hygiene and the state of his house in order to improve his robots. He tends to be non-confrontial and friendly in a rather reserved way. The only exceptions to this are cases in which his robots are threatened which makes him pull out every weaponizable invention he ever came up with or situations that allow him to talk about the new features of his robots. Regarding his inventions, he always sounds more like a dad proud of his kid than an engineer proud of his own cleverness.
Quote
Last week XR-57 was able to open the cupboard door completly by herself. Isn't she just great? I'm so proud of her but also a little sad because she always depended on me to help her in the past and she was so cute as well. Look at this image isn't that just outright adorable? I wished I could prevent them from growing up so fast but then again as a caring fa- I mean person I can't stand in the way of their development, right?
An around a 50-year-old woman that tries to create the perfect beautiful garden and keeps her boxes full of fertilizer ingredients organized according to a very specific system. She's a perfectionist through and through, expects a lot of others and herself and tends to be as radical as destroying half of her garden when she isn't content with it. While tends to be straightforward and unemotional about a lot of things she took a liking to a mutated carnivorous plant growing in a corner of a garden. She keeps bickering with it, sheltering it as one would with a misbehaving child or pet and threatening to cut it down when it snaps again at her but nonetheless cares for its offspring and carries it all the time.
Quote
What did I told you about biting? I told you we don't do that around here, didn't I? And let me tell you: If your roots keep growing any further I will cut not only them back! And now hold still and let me fertilize you, you unthankful little thing.
A middle-aged woman that likes tinkering and is well respected for her artisanal skills and eye for detail. Her character is hard to pinpoint as she in dialogs at most answers in a short-cut way and often even just grunts but everyone can see how much she loves her jobs when she is excited over new materials, concepts or orders. Her workshop/shop is full of homely feeling chaos as she used scraps of materials and prototypes of previous works to decorate it.
A scarecrow that has been brought to life by the mutation-triggering radiation. While it tends to have a quite condescending and provoking tone and wished it could be a real monster, it mostly just feels bored and wants to get attention which is the reason why it enjoys training fights so much.
Quote
Ey, you! Yeah, I mean you, you wimpy looking excuse for a human being! Do you really think you can survive out here? Did you even use that stick of yours before? Haha, you better learn how to do it or I will beat you - tsk I will hurt your feelings even more! Come on, beat me, you wimp!
Used as a helping character in the ruins and a mascot for the game.
Personality
A mysterious creature from an alien species that in the game talks in gibberish and is generally very peaceful and friendly towards the player. They can sometimes give helpful advice, but more often than not just have some quirky dialogue to offer.
Quote
My job is to give you hints to solve the puzzle if needed. So come to talk to me if you require assistance. But eh ... Actually I kinda forgot what the hint was supposed to be. But I still want to be helpful so come talk to me if you need some moral support. Need a example? The way you tried to solve the puzzle was super cool. It didn’t seem to work, but it was still cool!
Fig. 22: Alien Guy concept
3.2.9 Infliks Inhabitants
Details
They're not meetable in-game but are part of the background story.
Summary
Inflik is a planet near Fobim, on which the game takes place. Its past inhabitants feed on nutrients in the soil, which they absorb through their skin, have long lived in harmony with nature, and even worshipped it. Their most holy sanctuary was "The first garden" which bloomed richly on volcanic ash. They saw it as the cradle of life and refrained from using it as a source of food. Because of their love for nature, they despised anything artificial and refused any technological advancement until it became necessary to preserve their planet. They have a low reproduction rate and a very long life span. Today they're nearly extinct.
¶ 3.2.1 Long Ago: The Foreigners Problem, Curse and Blessing
Infliks inhabitants lived a very long time in peace on their planet. However, their population slowly increased due to their high life spans and they started to become a threat to their own planet's ecosystem. More and more stretches of land turned into deserts. Some started to embrace technology, some not, and they split into three camps: those searching for alternative food sources, those looking for a new habitat, and those who simply ignored the catastrophe. A group of researchers was sent to Fobim to check whether the soil there was suitable for Infliks flora and therefore could be enriched to feed their people. They carried over a newly developed energy fluid they used to extend their meals. While Fobim seemed to be quite a good fit for their needs, they struggled to tell their people because of the humans living there and whose habitat they didn't want to destroy.
Meanwhile, Inflik had hardly any land left to feed its inhabitants, and with no options left the government decided to make use of "The First Garden". This resulted in a war between the more hungry and the more religious. The first group building weapons to destroy the fortification of the garden build by the others, while the last experimented with chemicals that would make the soil uneatable for the others. Lastly, when some people drilled the ground to the lower layers in search of more nutrient-filled soil they caused an earthquake that activated the nearby volcano, the chemical mixed with the lava, and eventually affected the whole fluid core of the planet. The lava began to bubble and explode, which made the earth open up across the whole planet. As the lava with the chemical in it additionally was radioactive and the whole chain-reaction happened to fast for anyone to react no one on Inflik survived.
The researchers on Fobim observed a strange light originating from Inflik which seemed to have turned a different color. And they could tell that nothing of their home was left. As they didn't want to be responsible for the death of another ecosystem, they decided to help Fobims inhabitants to survive before they would leave to regroup with researchers send to other planets. And so they started to turn their research facilities into a factory for powerful crystals that are needed to fuel the radiation protection shield they designed. As the crystals need a long time to grow and lose energy as soon as they are out of their place in the factory, the researchers designed traps and riddles and related tools to protect them. Lastly, they roughly explained to the inhabitants of a nearby village how to activate the radiation protection shield, adapted the tools for human usage with the help of the villages hat maker by building a machine to convert the tools, trusted three families of the village with the safekeeping of the tools turned hats and gifted them a clock that would activate itself to warn the villagers when the planet would come close again as the radiation protection shield needs to much energy to have it always active. Unbeknownst to humans, the researchers added a feature to the machine that measures not only the head size but also the emotional balance of a human and implements nanochips into the fabric of the hat which keeps its bearer emotionally stable.
Told through
wall paintings which the researchers left in the ruins to give the humans an idea of what happened and to might give them a chance to fight the radiation themself if they would develop far enough.
wall paintings the humans left long ago in the entrance area of the ruins to document what happened.
journal entries that can be found in a sidequest.
¶ 3.2.2 Recent past: A burden too big and a village turning ignorant
Korine
Korine was born in the village in which the game takes place and was selected to be the one that'll collect the crystals when the time has come. But their parents worried and left the village soon after their birth and never told them about their duty in the hope that someone else would take care of it. Korine's parents still kept worrying throughout their whole childhood and became overly protective parents which left Korine themselves with a lot of worries and not much experience with anything that could be remotely dangerous. Their desire to help others kept growing however and so they choose to work for the government. They were as nervous as they were excited about their job and so they caused a lot of troubles ranging from accidentally offending representatives from other countries over creating chaos by explaining a new law wrongly to nearly causing a war. At some point, no one trusted them anymore and so they'd often get small unimportant tasks which no one else wants to take care of. One of these tasks leads them to the secluded village in which the game takes place.
Hat Maker
The hat maker was born in the village in which the game takes place in and was raised by his parents who put a lot of pressure onto him in the year of his youth as it was clear that he would be the one to adapt the hats eventually to the heroes needs. He developed a lot of fears and insecurities and has still a troubled relationship with his parent because of it. When he started to make new hats for the villagers his fear the machine of the researchers was affected so much by it, it couldn't measure the emotions of the hat's owner and kept producing hats with a strong fear suppressing component. Now no one in the village fears anything neither a drop of their social ranking nor the catastrophe that happens if they don't activate the radiation protection shield.
Korine arrives in-midst the preparation for the yearly festival with which the villagers honor the shield build by the aliens and the bravery of past and upcoming heroes and gets talked into collecting the crystals by the eloquent hat maker. The events unfold like listened in 1.4 Game Flow. The game ends with the festival finally happening.
The game is developed using the Unity Game Engine with the primary focus on the PC platform, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. Despite this, during development, design choices are considered on the possibility of console versions later during development or after release. This is also reflected in the game being developed mainly for controller input. While the game can also be played using a keyboard, the focus during development is an Xbox-style controller, as it is is the most commonly found controller on the PC platform.
The software used for this project was chosen based on the experience of the individual team members.
Game Engine
Unity
Proprietary
Version Control
Git - hosted on Github
GPLv2
Perforce Helix Core - self-hosted
Proprietary
Git Tools
GitKraken
Proprietary
Project Management
Atlassian Jira
Proprietary
Documentation
Atlassian Confluence
Proprietary
Communication
Discord
Proprietary
IDE
JetBrains Rider
Proprietary
2D / Texturing
Adobe Photoshop
Proprietary
Adobe Illustrator
Proprietary
Affinity Photo
Proprietary
Affinity Designer
Proprietary
Animations
Spine
Proprietary
Adobe After Effects
Proprietary
3D Modelling
Blender
GPLv2+
Additionally, to the already mentioned software, various Unity packages are used, including a package for often used code extensions, structures, and patterns, created by three of the current team members during the development of their previous games.
Our main technical challenge is the implementation of our chosen 2.5D style as it involves a game world consisting of 3D geometry while the player, enemies, and many smaller assets in the game are 2D sprites that are standing 'upright' in the world. As our camera will look down at the game world in a 45° angle, 3D geometry, as well as all sprites, have to be skewed towards the camera in such a fashion that the front of each element is not distorted anymore but appears as if the camera would be looking at them from the front. Combined with a camera that uses perspective and is not orthogonal, this allows us to create a unique look where 2D sprites can move through a 3D world with proper depth and perspective while maintaining an overview position in the level through a 45° top-down camera.
The solution to this problem are custom written shaders that are applied to all elements of the game. These shift the vertices of all game objects including 2D sprites along the Z-axis (depth) based on their position along the Y-axis (height). This effectively skews the geometry and sprites to correctly face their fronts to the camera, while keeping the top of the geometry unchanged.
Fig. 23: Effect of the shader, skewing the rendering of the cylinder, but not the internal logic of its position.
This solution was chosen over a simpler approach such as rotating the 2D sprites, as it does not interfere with other rotations of the sprite that might be necessary and this solution can also be applied more universally not only on 2D sprites but also on 3D geometry such as the walls facing to the left or right. This eliminates the need for manually skewing all 3d models during creation inside our 3D modeling software. The additional benefit of this method is the complete separation between the skewing and the in-game logic and physics, as shaders only affect the rendering process, while the physics system can operate as if nothing would be skewed.
The style of our game is reduced, stylized, and based on basic shapes. The assets are shown from the top-front at a low angle and we use slightly different perspectives on different assets. We use dark purple outlines with a fixed width. We have a bigger outline width for general outlines and a smaller one for details and inner outlines. We use hard borders for the base shadows and highlights and add a textured layer for secondary shadows and highlights. This gives the assets more character but also preserves a clean read of the shadows. The main light for the assets is coming from the top-front at a hight angle.
Since we have three artists working on the project we are trying to take the necessary steps to assure that the final assets all fit together well in terms of style. Such as having in-depth conversations about the color palette, which brushes we are using, and even occasionally making style guides for ourselves. Guides for the style of the characters, or in some cases how we want to draw the clouds, etc. We are also making sure to constantly ask each other for feedback and help each other when needed.
Fig. 26: Character style guide
Fig. 27: Style guide for cloud assets and different trees
In terms of the characters, we will create the animations with Spine Pro which requires us to draw each individual body part that will be animated separately. We already used this workflow for the prototype scene (the character however, was created in gray scale to simplify things for us).
We are planning on using some of the special features of Spine Pro to add a bit of a 3D effect to all the animations.
It is important to us that all the animations showcase the personality of each individual character.
Fig. 28: Screenshot of skeletal animation in Spine Pro
As stated before we have created a style guideline that we will follow when creating both the characters and the environmental assets. Our main goal is to create characters that are made up of various basic, solid shapes (as an example characters that have rectangular, slightly exaggerated fingers) in the hopes of giving the overall look a cohesive style, but also in the hopes of giving each character a distinct look and personality.
They will all follow the same basic rules but we hope to give each character a distinct silhouette and it is very important to us that all the character designs feel somewhat quirky and showcase the personality of each individual character while also fitting together in terms of art style.
Fig. 30: Alien Guy
Even when dealing with characters that have a more minimalist and basic look, our goal is to make them all quirky and hopefully memorable to the player.
We are also planning on using a dark purple color for the lineart when creating the assets rather than a complete black, and will also be working with a brush that is relatively clean but also has a bit of roughness and texture to it.
Besides following the aforementioned style rules it is very important to us that Korine's personality is always showcased through their animations and different sprites. Whether Korine is fighting, talking to the villagers or just exploring the world.
Yes, they will rise to the occasion and eventually become a hero. And yes they are always willing to help, but that does not mean that they aren't full of doubts and insecurities and it is very important to us to showcase that.
We want them to often look nervous or somewhat unsure of what to do. Even when using their staff to fight, or using the hat abilities.
Fig. 33: Concepts for attack animation and possible hat designs
We are continuing to explore designs for the different hats and our goal is clear: they should all be quirky and memorable.
As an example: instead of having a hat that simply shoots a bolt of lightning, we want to have a machine-like hat, that will release a tiny robot that after running towards the enemy, will malfunction and release a static field.
Or instead of simply having a hat that shoots water, we want to instead have a hat that resembles a teapot. Something which would also allow us to expand on the personality of the character who gives the player the hat as well (a British gentleman, or someone who grows coffee beans as a hobby, etc.)
Fig. 34: Early sketches and concept exploration/Training dummy sprite
Regarding the design of the enemies, we want them to feel somewhat bizarre. Not just traditional animals or the expected fantasy creatures, but rather something that feels unique to the world of our game.
The village is quite small, but bright and colorful which stands in contrast to the more monochrome and darker atmosphere of the ruins. Despite its few inhabitants, the village feels joyful and busy. Everybody is pursuing their hobbies or preparing for the upcoming festival. As the whole life of the villager revolves around their hobbies their houses and belongings are also designed to reflect that.
The environment around the village and the ruins is a wild, lush landscape with a lot of different plants. The flora and fauna vary from plant and animals that are natural in this area and ones that have mutated over the last years. The world should feel different and interesting, but still bear enough similarities to our world so that the player is able to make sense of their surroundings.
The plants are colorful and inspired by different weird plants in our world, underwater plants, or alien-like plants from other games or movies. To let the environment feel more alive we want to animate some of the plants so that something is slightly moving all the time. Examples would be grass in the wind, leafs falling down, or some small animals running around.
The ruins are the second dangerous area for the player apart from the outer environment. Besides more dangerous enemies, puzzles await the player here, which must be solved if the player wants to get further inside. The stony ruins are populated by mutant plants and monsters. The cold and purple shimmering environment is illuminated only by the yellowish crystal liquid and some glowing moss or mushrooms. The player can find mechanical remnants and signs of an alien species. The only reason to descend these dangerous depths is the important and beautiful crystal, which should be brought to the village.
Fig. 39: Ruin Concept 1
Fig. 40: Ruin Concept 2
Fig. 41: Ruin Concept 3
Fig. 42: Ruin Concept 4
To add to the alien culture and to have reappearing visuals in the ruins we decided to want to have Symbols that the aliens use for writing. They should have a alienish and mysterious vibe and therefore are mostly inspired by stellar constellations. They also have a similarity with crop circles. These signs can be also found in different spots in the ruins like walls, floors, or even the machines.
Because the puzzles are located in the ruins, these passages will be similarly gloomy and poorly lit. Only the puzzle tiles, which are arranged in a grid, will be slightly illuminated and highlighted. This is important so that the player can find his way around and concentrate on the puzzle. Predominant colors are purple and yellow as in the ruins. All the puzzle sections will be free of enemies so that the player can solve the puzzles undisturbed. Puzzle tiles have a special shape to prevent the player from walking on the next diagonal tiles.
Fig. 44: Rune Puzzle and Signs Concept
The symbols on the puzzle tiles have the same aesthetic as the other symbols in the ruins.
The HUD will display the controls for the basic attack command (with the staff), the hat action for the currently equipped hat, and the dash ability.
And we might also make the decision to always show on screen the buttons for the hat selection, as well as the button to open the inventory.
For the ruins, we want to have the possibility of additionally showing a minimap to help players throughout their journey. And the current quest/goal will occasionally pop-up on the top right corner of the screen.
And we have decided to have a dark vignette show up on screen to signify the players' health, rather than having a traditional health bar. Since we believe that this also ties in better with the themes of the game, and the self-doubt that the character feels throughout the story.
There will be an option for the player to disable parts of the HUD and we will have different Layouts for controller and keyboard input.
We have prepared some mockups to visualize our ideas better:
Fig. 46: Training tutorial "screenshot"
Fig. 47: Visualization of the Vignette that appears when the player's shield is low
Fig. 48: Visualizations of a possible dialogue scene
For the dialog, we will have in-game speech bubbles with character portraits, which will also allow us to show the characters with different expressions, without us having to draw their entire bodies.
The speech bubble will be placed next to the speaking character and will have different shapes depending on the tone in which the character is speaking. As an example, the dialog box could become spiky if the character speaking is angry.
The inventory will display the items of the main storyline, the staff which the player uses to attack, the hats and the crystals, and the items for the different side-quests, which will be the mutation particles, the created festival decoration items, the collectible journal entries and other items that need to be delivered as part of a quest. Each item or at least item type has a designated spot in the inventory which is also designed around its specific content rather than an extensible grid. This allows for more creative freedom with the design of the inventory and aims to heighten the sense of progression the player feels as they observe their inventory slowly filling throughout their playthrough. Additionally, the player can also view the map in the inventory to get a rough orientation of their position.
All static 2D assets are created in Photoshop and saved in the PNG format with an 8K resolution. They are exported tightly cut, without any extra spacing around the image. They are imported with a PPU of 666 in Unity.
During this import process, a custom import tool we created modifies the read-in image data and slightly pads it. This is done for two reasons: First, to add a small specified amount of padding around all images which allows us to draw an additional outline around sprites during runtime through a custom written shader. Secondly, to align the width and height of the image to be a multiple of 4, for better compression inside Unity using DX5 and BC7.
Animations are created by creating the individual limbs and elements in Photoshop and import them into Spine where they are then assembled and animated. The result animation is exported as a PNG sprite sheet. In Unity, these sprite sheets are used to create the animation and tweak the animation speed, loop behavior, and other settings.
All Sprites and animations are tested in a test scene, to avoid artifacts or errors and are regularly reviewed to ensure a consistent style.
Game Name, Release Year, Price, Number of Reviews, and Publisher come directly from Steam (Valve, 2003). The number of sales comes from Steam Spy (Galyonkin, 2015), positive review percentage from Steam Database (xPaw and Marlamin, 2015), and average playtime from PlayTracker (Mikolićm, 2019). All other columns were filled by observation.
Use existing expertise to develop the action-adventure market
Use feedback to iteratively improve
Fight knowledge gaps by learning together
risks
Increase publicity through social media and events
Iterative work to get to know the team
Inexperience could lead to too large scope and unpolished results. Avoid this by having recurring team meetings and having multiple iterations with a focus on the must-haves.
Product Analysis
internal analysis
strengths
weaknesses
external analysis
chances
Get the attention of possible customers through unique art style and 2.5D effects
The market for games of this genre is not overly saturated yet
Short gameplay time is similar to other Zelda-like action-adventures
Steam revenue of this market is low but the target group can be reached through Nintendo Consoles
risks
Similarity to other Zelda-like action-adventures; differentiate from competing products through combining a 2.5D look with a complex combat system, quirky world & interactions.
Low camera angle could influence combat and puzzle system negatively; use multiple tests to ensure gameplay quality
Since our development begins during our studies and we will produce a vertical slice during that time we will save 444.150,50 € on development costs. This and the following values were calculated by estimating all tasks, calculating with the minimum wage rate of 2021 which results in 1.496,00€ per a months worth of work and doubling the estimate to compensate for our lack of experience and excluded meeting times. As we plan to outsource music and sound production and synchronization of dialogs the calculation for them might change. All calculation details can be found here.
In the following we will only regard Steam as a platform as the scope, for now, was also calculated without consideration for a port and Steam is the easiest to estimate. We see 14,99€ as a fair price as most of the more polished looking games in the table are selling to a similar price. Additionally, we need to consider the algorithmic benefits due to customer spikes caused by sales on Steam. Therefore the price of 14,99€ is also set with the intention to gradually make a larger price reduction in sales. We now aim to make our lowest sale at around 50% off as going below that might attract more customers but not necessarily result in more money. The additional customers might buy the game only because it's on sale and not because they like the genre or idea which brings the risk of getting more negative reviews and thus results in a worse treatment of the Steam algorithms. With a full price of 14,99€ and Steams cut of 30%, we would have 10,49€ as actual turnover and during a sale of 50%, we would be selling the game at 7,49€ which would result in a turnover of 5,25€.
Fig. 50: Expected turnover for selected number of sold copies
We regard 20.000 sold units as our worst estimate as the games that sold below that number are either very simple or experimental in their visuals or had a short play-time. With our worst estimate, we would've reached a break-even for our MVP. 100.000 - 200.000 units seemed to be reachable for most of the more polished looking games, so we think it's a fair estimate. This would let us break-even for our should-have scope. Our could-have scope will in the future be divided into different packages from which some might still be valuable to implement. Above that might be possible through good marketing and an even more polished looking game.
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Fig. 1: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Village (Grezzo, 2019a)
Fig. 10: A Short Hike (adamgryu, 2019)
Fig. 14: A basic rune field showing only the first valid pair.
Fig. 16: A rune field with only one valid way for the player consisting out of 2 valid pairs.
Fig. 23: Effect of the shader, skewing the rendering of the cylinder, but not the internal logic of its position.
