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THE DOOR PROJECT

Ryan Nixon - Second year

For the first project of the year, I was tasked with a very open brief.

“Make a game with a door in it” and the thing that came to my mind instantly was Takeshi's castle’s “Knock Knock” section, where gameshow contestants sprint full force into a wall of doors, hoping they pick the door make of paper rather than wood or with a net behind it.

I took inspiration from this and developed a game, Firstly starting as an infinite runner style game, with 5 different doors, A blocked door represented in RED, a door with a laser grid hidden behind it represented in PINK, a safe door which is shown in GREEN, a net door which is represented in BLUE and finally a door with spikes behind it which is represented in BLACK.

Explained above is what each door does, but I will cover them shortly in text as well.

RED -  blocked, instant death in all game modes.

PINK - Lasers, Instant death in all game modes.

GREEN -  Safe, running through scores points and lets the player continue.

BLUE - Net, Instant death on infinite mode, though these can be escaped in free at the cost of time and thus points.

BLACK - Spikes, Instant death on infinite mode, these can be avoided if you react quick enough, but again these will slow you down and thus cost you points.

So these are the key elements of the game, as I develop the game further I may add additional elements such as obstacles between stretches of doors, or collectables to increase the player's score.

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For our second brief in games design I was tasked to create a simple grey-box castle, I started by creating a basic concept (First picture) I then created a play and then recreated that within the unreal engine.

I then continued by creating more details such as battlements, overhangs and slopes. During my research I discovered that many castles during the 5-10th century were built to a specific standard. Most walls were 30-40ft tall and usually were designed with lips to prevent ladders. They also would have sloped walls at the base to make it more difficult for ladders to embark on specific areas.

I then added some large chains to support the large floating crystal and some small buildings to represent barracks and meeting rooms.

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I created a level for a multiplayer game brief with a emphisis on teamwork between two players.

This is the first level I created, Containing Tutorials for both players mechanics.I started by making a concept on power point, two individual tutorials, One for each player. I then combined them in a hand drawn map, I then finalised my design with colour in Photoshop.

The players start locked behind a door, The smaller player must hack into a terminal to the right in order top open the door, They are then faced with a camera which will alert the guards and cause a fail if they are both killed. The large character must hide behind a crate while the smaller player enters a vent, Once the smaller player gets past the guard has he patrols he must hack another terminal to disable the camera, This allows the bigger player to fight the guard without being detected. The players can then proceed to the next room.

The next room is filled with office workers and patrolling guards, These guards will attempt to fight the player if they are seen. The players have two options, Either take out the guards and hack a computer inside the block of cubicles, or the larger player can risk being detected and listen in on employees until he finds the password for next door.

I also created a design for a second level though I did not end up converting it to Photoshop as it was too messy and cluttered to be a proper level. In future I plan to come back to this and edit it into a clean and easy to understand map.