Reflection
(Work in progress)
Role in Project :
Designer
3D Artist
Team Members :
Chester Ng
Wong Wee Meng
Rachael Lee
Jauzan Darwisy
Reflection is a First Person Adventure Puzzle game developed by my team and I using Unity 3D as part of our Final Year Project in our final year of Games Design & Development in Singapore Polytechnic.
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Players experience the adventure of Jaslyn Pines, a news editor and reporter for the local news as she ventures into the abandoned home of a missing scientist.
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Little did Jaslyn knew, she was in for an adventure of a lifetime as she uncovers the scientist's inventions and unveils the mystery of his missing family.
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Jaslyn also finds herself between 2 worlds, divided by mirror-portals that allows one to travel through dimensions/wormholes into an alternate world.
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The Conceptual Design behind Reflections
Character Design
During the conceptual phase of development of Reflection, my role as a designer was to come up with the main protagonist and antagonist and the setting of the game. This is so that my entire team could get a feel as to what the game would be about and how to carry out their conceptual jobs for the game.
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In the picture on the left, you could see the first ever conceptual art done for Jaslyn Pines.
Mechanics & Environmental Design
Another one of my main responsibilities as the designer of this team was to lay out and finalise the set of core mechanics for the game during the conceptual phase.
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During the conceptualisation phase of the game, I thought of many mechanics that could possibily be used in this game. I tried to conceptualise of mechanics that unique or had a level of interest in them.
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After thinking of the mechanics of the game, I went on to make the 3D assets based on whatever concept art that I had from my artists. (At this phase, there were not many to take reference from, therefore I had to improvise)
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As my artists were held up with other assignments and creating concept art for the game, I took the responsibility in making the conceptual 3-dimensional environment for the early-testing phase of the game.
Through much testing of the mechanics in the game, we came up with the mechanics that we decided to go for for the rest of Reflection.
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We also received much feedback on the environment and story of Reflections, hence, moving on, we kept in mind of these feedbacks and put them into action moving on to the alpha and beta phases of the game.
Development Phase of Reflections
My sub-role as 3D artist
In the early phases of development for Reflections, apart from helping out in the design of the game, I also took the responsibility as the 3D environmental artist.
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Therefore, in the early phase of development of the game, I took reference from the concept art of the environments that my artist drew up, and converted them in 3D environments.
In the early stages of development of the game, my role as a 3D environmental artist was to create the basement of the scientist's house and to populate it with props based on the concept art and the research that I did.
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The basement went through several iterations after taking feedback from different lecturers on the environment and the feel of the basement.
After creating the basement of the scientist's mansion, I moved on to help out my other artist by creating parts of the environment, including all the props and assets in the upper levels above the basement in the mansion.
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I was also in-charge of laying out the design for all the rooms of the mansions and where to place the different portals and interactables in the rooms.
Creating the Mirror-Portals
As a 3D artist for Reflections, I was also handed the responsibility to design and create the 3D Mirror-Portals to be placed in the game.
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This was a daunting task as the look and feel of the portals themselves can either make or break the game as this was the core part of the gameplay.
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Just like the environment, the portals also went through many iterations after taking feedback from lecturers. Feedback for the look and feels of the portals were taken very seriously.
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The portals have to be speciically designed in a way where it would look the same in almost every angle, and the models could not have any problems when the portals were turned or scaled, as these were the core mechanics of our game.
Conceptualisation Gallery
Art and assets that were created during the conceptualisation of Reflections.
Mansion Basement Gallery
Art and assets that were created for the basement of the scientist's mansion.
Mansion Gallery
Art and assets that were created for the scietist's mansion.
Mirror-Portals Gallery
3D assets for the Mirror-Portals in the real world and the alternate world.
Alernate World/Lab Gallery
Art and assets that were created for the alternate world. These include the puzzles in the game as well.
Beta and Gold Phase of Reflection
Filling Environment for Level 2
Our team spent a portion of the pre-Beta development period to fill up the environment that had been planned for Level 2 of Reflection.
This included enabling vision of the puzzles through the "mirrors" which was previously not possible before the Beta phase.
We also performed some minor polishing, like adding more props and improving lighting and normal mapping of the environment.
Implementation of Puzzles in Level 2
Rotational Puzzles in Level 2
Our team felt that it was important to implement some form of puzzle that involved the player tilting the world as it would help to enforce everything the player had learnt from the tutorial in Level 1.
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This also serves as a final revision of this mechanic before we introduce new mechanics to the player.
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Therefore, this major puzzle was important as it makes sure that the player is ready to move on in the game.
Scaling Puzzle in Level 2
The next mechanic that we implemented in Level 2 is the scaling mechanic. This allows the player to resize the environment behind the "mirror" to let them pass through obstacles or pathways that were previously not possible due to size restrictions.
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This puzzle in particular requires players to scale the world small to complete one part of the puzzle, and to scale the world large to complete the second part of the puzzle.
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This is to familiarise the player with both types of scaling as this puzzle also serves as a tutorial on the scaling mechanic to players.
Implementation of Level 3 - Greenhouses
Both the greenhouse environments that we have made for the game are used to serve as both an environmental puzzle, and also a storytelling element of the game.
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The greenhouse environments continue to enforce the tilting mechanics to players, as well as adding new puzzle elements such as security cameras and control panels that players are required to interact with to complete the puzzles.
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The greenhouses are also the introductory environments to level 3 to players. Therefore, we created an environment that would vastly contrast with the environment that players would be used to by now, to introduce the new act of the story to the game to the players. That way, players would be intrigued by the change in environment and would want to play the game to find out more.
Implementation of Level 3 - Construction Site (Gallery Chamber)
We also developed an entirely new environment for the game being the construction site. The construction site contains the gallery chamber, chamber 0, chamber 1 and chamber2.
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I helped out by designing, planning, modelling and texturing the entire construction site environment for the final act of the story of the game.
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The first part of the construction site is the Gallery Chamber. The Gallery Chamber serves as a tutorial for the test chambers (chambers 0,1,2) in the later stages of the construction site. Each individual gallery in the gallery chamber showcases elements and mechanics that the players can play with that will be found in the later stages of the construction site level.
Implementation of Level 3 - Amplifier-Gravity Mechanic
Level 3 is when the Amplifier device and its corresponding mechanic will be introduced to players.
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The Amplifier device and its mechanics can be seen in effect in the gallery chamber and the device will be picked up by players there as well.
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This device, when wielded by players, will attach to objects that glow, giving them gravitational properties when the environment is tilted. When taken away, the object will stay still.
Implementation of Level 3 -
Puzzle Chamber 0
Puzzle Chamber 0 is the next location tat players will enter after the Gallery Chamber. This puzzle will emphasize heavily on the Amplifier mechanic that the players have learnt back in the Gallery Chamber. This chamber also introduces new puzzle elements cubes, moving walls and pressure pads.
Implementation of Level 3 -
Puzzle Chamber 1 & 2
Puzzle Chamber 1, in itself also emphasizes mechanics that were already taught to the player before. However, this puzzle is interesting in the way that it is a 2-level puzzle and it introduces new puzzle elements like the cube shooters.
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This environment also forces players to traverse the environment in creative ways to get back to the "mirror" when it is tilted. One of them being to walk on the scaffolding of the construction site.
Puzzle Chamber 2, being the last puzzle of the game, our team wanted to make sure that this puzzle chamber was both challenging and interesting in its own ways. Therefore, we made this huge environment make use of every mechanic that the player has learnt.