The goal of the game

Story

The player arrives at a small town in the middle of nowhere and is asked by the mayor to fix the power of the town by climbing to the top of the watchtower. When this task has been completed, the player is invited to look around the town and talk to the citizens. One of them talks about the church and how the player should visit. The players visits, solves a puzzle, and leaves the church. The player talks to more people and gets pointed towards another part of the town. However, for every puzzle the player solves, a citizen of the town disappears without a trace. The game ends with the player confronting the mayor because he is the only one left. The mayor thinks the player is evil and as the player leaves they see the monster that has been taking the citizens all along.

Foreshadowing

During the game, there is a lot of foreshadowing that hints at the disappearances and their cause. There are hints in the dialogue. One of the citizens, the crazy one, mentions strange figures with white glowing eyes. These figures can also be seen in paintings in one of the levels. Finaly, they appear in the final puzzle as something to avoid.

Different puzzles

The game is divided in eight different puzzles. All of these puzzles are set in visually differing environments. I have tried to make every puzzle fitting to the scene and different from the rest.

Tower

The first puzzle the player encounters is the tutorial level. The player climbs to the top of the tower to find the button that ends the puzzle. This level is not meant to tutorialize the puzzles but aims to familiarize the player with the movement and the setting. The player can interact with different panels on the wall. They need to be pressed in a certain order for the stairs to appear.

Church

The first real puzzle is set in the church. The player sees a board of tiles and pieces of a circuit are scattered around the room. The player needs to direct the current over the board to various doors so that the final door opens. The main hall is bathed in blue light coming from the stained glass windows.

Cliffside

The cliffside is a puzzle where the player needs to construct a pathway to the next platform. There is a control panel with 3, 5, or 7 buttons and the player needs to press them in the right order. Every button toggles a different number of platforms and the player needs to figure out which button is connected to which platforms and then use this information to build the stairs.

Sewer

In the sewer level, the player needs to direct a small cube over a grid of tiles. There is a control panel with buttons that send the cube in a the corresponding direction. The cube will only stop if it has reached the end of the board or an invisible obstacle. The locations of these obstacles are marked on a map behind the player, as well as the exit tile.

House

The house is a bit less conventional. In here, there are puzzles that require the player to think outside of the box. The puzzles are largely inspired on the game Antichamber, as is the feel of the rooms.

Museum

The museum consists of three increasingly bigger rooms with paintings on the wall. The paintings are connected by coloured pipes. Every side of the painting has a colour and they need to match the pipes that connect the paintings. The player can select two paintings to switch places using buttons.

Mines

The mines consist of a number of seemingly bottomless pits with a grid of floating numbered tiles serving as a bridge. On the wall is a sequence of 2 numbers and 2 question marks. The player needs to figure out the missing numbers and walk the tiles in the right order to get across. If the tile is not the next number, the player will fall through it and respawn. After testing, it turned out that there were multiple solutions.

Roofs

The roofs level is the last level and introduces the evil force in the town. The long black figures. The player is put on a grid of tiles and every time they move to a different space, the figures move as well, always facing the player and slowly creeping closer. The player needs to navigate the field without getting caught.

Challenges

This was my first big 3D project and the game is therefore a bit rough around the edges. There were a lot of technical challenges such as lighting, saving the game, and physics. The game was not as well received as I had hoped. I blame this largely on the complicated nature of the game and the fact that the first few puzzles were not engaging enough to make people play further. Since the game is a lot longer than previous games I made, a lot of people did not make it far into it.

Achievements

I learned a lot from this project. Not only did it make me more comfortable in a 3D environment, I also gained a lot of knowledge on 3D modelling. This made the game look a lot nicer, while still maintaining the simple look of my other games. Although the game as a whole did not turn out exceptional in my opinion, the individual puzzles work quite nicely and are quite fun to play with. I am also quite fond of the story with the figures being involved in the disappearances. All in all, I am quite happy with this project.