World Interaction

 

Certain parts of the game world can be interacted with in various contextual ways, for example, doors, drawers and cupboards can be opened and closed, the ivy in the introductory scene of the game can be pushed aside, grates can be moved, etc. 

This interaction should be bound to a single button, which only has effect when the player is close to and aiming at the interactive element. When the player meets these conditions an indicator should appear in the form of an icon representing the action the player will take in the center of the screen. This should give players a solid idea of what action they will perform even if they’ve never done it before, avoiding the player performing actions without knowledge of what they are achieving and maintaining agency over the gameworld. 

Default binding: A (xbox) / X (PS) / E (Mouse and Keyboard) 

 

Object Interaction

 

Similarly to world interaction, objects can be interacted with, by picking them up and storing them in an inventory for use in later puzzles. For example, keys can be picked up, and used to unlock a door located elsewhere, which can in turn be interacted with to open a new area. 

For small items the hitbox required to be aimed at for interaction to become possible should be significantly larger than the item's visual size to prevent frustratingly fiddly interactions and make it harder to miss small items. 

 

Inventory

 

When objects are collected they go to an inventory, this should allow players to hold multiple items corresponding to different puzzles while still being able to use these items in any order. 

The inventory should be presented as a hot bar that grows to accommodate the number of items in the inventory and fades out when not in use. The hotbar will reappear when the player uses the item select controls and when the player aims at an interactive world element that requires the use of an item. This fading in and out should help to keep the HUD clutter free while maintaining functionality. 

When an item is selected it should be shown in the lower right corner of the screen as if held. 

The hotbar can be accessed by using the d-pad on controller or number keys / scroll wheel on mouse and keyboard to select an item, which will then be moved to the hand (where it can be used to interact with other things). 

There should always be an empty slot which can be selected to put away all items, removing the held item and clearing the screen completely, in case the player wants to use the full screen to watch a scene, take a screenshot, etc. 

The hotbar should represent the action of looking in a bag and taking something out of it. 

 

Dialogue

 

In the memories you can see your parents talking and arguing, these dialogues will be split into scenes, which play upon approach. The characters will fade into view when the player is close enough, avoiding having multiple copies of the same characters on screen at once. 

 

Progression and Completion

 

After a player has completed all puzzles in a room or area and witnessed the narratively relevant memories that the area contains, the items and objects within that zone will be removed and boxed up, furniture will be moved outside. This will not be shown but instead the updated, packed up room will replace the old version when the player next returns to the present from a memory. 

Once all the areas of the house are cleared away, by completing all the puzzles and finishing the game's story, the game will end, when the player walks back outside to the gate. This should lead the player back through most of the house, so they can witness it in its newly packed up state and travel though it for a truly final time. When they leave a cutscene will play showing all the boxes and furniture being loaded into a truck and a for sale sign being put up in front of the now empty house.

 

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Gameplay Example

 

Introduction

The introduction should be fairly scripted / linear as to introduce the concepts of the game properly and to establish the game world and setting. Here is a descriptive piece to help capture the flow and atmosphere of the introduction. 

 

Your protagonist and player character returns to their childhood home after several years separated from it, you walk up a driveway, new to the player, achingly familiar to the protagonist. Its a winter evening, the sky is overcast, though not yet dark, it’s clear that there has been recent rainfall. The grass is long, unkempt, thick with moisture, the driveway laden with potholes, each filled to the brim with murky water, the grey-white sky reflecting off the waters surface. 

As you make your way up the twisting, overgrown driveway, you pass bubbles of a previous time. These are shown as portal like visages. Through these portals you see the environment as it was many years ago, on a bright, warm summers day, the grass is shorter, though still clearly quite uncared for. As you approach these portals they grow and eventually envelope you, transporting you to the past version of the driveway. You are now playing the protagonist as a child, around 11 years old. 

In this past colours are bright, things feel fresh, the building, your house at the end of the drive, practically glows in the sun, though it's already old by this point in time. It has edwardian architecture, its large, though not excessive, it would clearly have been very valuable when it was built, though it was showing its age even when the protagonist was young. 

You see someone call to you from the house, their speech appears in a comic book style bubble, they make a noise too but its words are inaudible, merely an indication of speech. 

They call you over for dinner, and you make your way back to the house through the now dry grass, bathed in a golden evening sun, the grass ripples in the wind and you hear crickets chirp. 

 

As you approach the door another portal forms, growing as you approach, taking you back to the present day, through it you see the door is rotting, its paint is chipped and peeling, one of the windows is missing and replaced with a hastily taped on piece of cardboard. 

 

You step closer to the portal to the present until it envelops you, as an adult again you take a key from your pocket, and go to unlock the front door. The key wont turn and the door doesn't budge. When you turn around you see another portal to the past, through it you see the words “come around the back, the front doors jammed.” this speech bubble floats from behind the house, indicating how to get to the back entrance. This portal will shrink to nothing before the player can travel through it. 

 

Here the first puzzle presents itself, 

The rear of the house is thoroughly overgrown, its near impossible to see where the door even is. On an old table is a toy wooden train, the protagonist will make mention of this and / or the camera will be momentarily forced to look in its direction, indicating its significance. When the toy is approached the player will be prompted to pick it up. When picked up a portal to the past emerges from its chimney, which quickly expands and envelops the entire viewport, this again transports the player to the past, also restoring the toy train to its original, newer state. From here onwards the player may call the toy at any time, transporting them between the past and the present at will. 

 

The player will be able to see the back door in the past, after seeing this they can return to the present and push aside the overgrown ivy from the doorway, which gives you entry to the house. 

Following puzzles will use similar mechanics, utilizing information from the past to identify solutions in the present. 

 

The player traverses through the house solving these puzzles. When jumping back to the present from the past once a section is completed, the clutter of objects and items that fill the house will be removed and replaced by boxes, showing that the protagonist has packed up these items, preparing to leave the house for a final time. Some furniture will also be packed up or removed. 

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Puzzle example

 

In one memory you see your parents arguing, one of them threatens to hide the key to the garage 

In another memory you hear her talking about how she hid something in the vent in her room

You can then go to her room and find the key, unlocking the garage

In this puzzle you require the multiple pieces of information and combine them to progress. 

(Each memory is visible only in a certain location)

 

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UIX and HUD
 

The HUD should be unobtrusive, and should only be visible when contextually relevant.

 

Crosshair:

• While most of the time there should be no crosshair indication, it should appear when the player is aiming at an interactive object and within interaction range. In this scenario the crosshair should take the form of an icon representing what the interaction will be.

• The crosshairs main function should predominantly be to indicate when an object is interactable and what that interaction will involve, rather than precise aiming. 

 

Hotbar / Inventory: 

 

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Environment Design

 

There will be two environments, using the same core geometry, one in the past and one in the present, it should always be clear which you are in and each should have a distinct tone and atmosphere. 

 

Past

• The house in the present setting should be clearly very run down, and abandoned. Narratively the house will have been abandoned for several months, following years of neglectful ownership. 

• The House - Exterior 

  • The house is a large Edwardian style manor. 

  • By the time the protagonist and their family are living there it is already old and decrepit. 

  • It has a weathered red/brown brick exterior, with a dark slate peaked roof. 

  • It has thin double hung windows, with small panes broken up with a wooden grid. The window frames are painted white but the external paint is flaky and old. 

  • There is a porch with a green panelled front door, frosted windows at its top and a rusted metal knocker. 

  • There’s wisteria and ivy growing up parts of the walls, its shaped roughly around the windows 

  • Lighting 

    • The scenes in the past should take place near sunset on a clear day, giving the scene a warm yellow/orange light. The scenes should have high contrast on the warmer colours with more subdued blues and greens

• Garden

  • The front lawn is large with a paved driveway running through it. 

  • The grass is about knee high and ripples in the wind

  • Various trees are dotted around the lawn, most prominent is a willow which stands away from the house and other trees on a small hill. 

  • At the end of the garden is a low brick wall with an iron gate leading to the road.

• The House - Interior 

  • The house has predominantly wooden floors and detailing.

  • The house is very cluttered with objects, books, boxes, stationary, stacks of papers / mail etc, on most surfaces. Generally there is too much stuff for the house to accommodate. 

  • There is also a lot of furniture, shelves, chair, tables, drawers, etc. There is little free space, just enough to easily walk around the spaces. The furniture is arranged chaotically. It should not feel like the objects and furniture have been efficiently packed in or tetris’d into the rooms. 

  • Lighting

    • The windows should be dusty, giving poor view of the outside but casting well defined light rays into the house

    • The lighting should be very warm, bringing out the warm woody colours of the interior, and casts well defined shadows. 

    • There should be plenty of lamps around each room, while ceiling lamps are limited to one or two hanging lights with lampshade per room. 

 

Present 

• The House - Exterior 

  • Bricks are further weathered and moss grows in many of the joints between the bricks. Roof has moss growing on patches of it and a small hole in one side

  • The windows are further weathered, their white paint turning grey. Many of the panes are broken, cracked, or boarded up

  • The porch is filled with dust and cobwebs, one of the doors windows has been smashed 

  • The wisteria has grown larger and grown over some of its branches cover windows, since its winter there are no leaves, only the twisting branches. The ivy has also grown and now covers the back door entirely as well as growing across part of the roof above this. The ivy is still thick with leaves being evergreen.

  • Lighting 

    • The weather is cold and overcast, the grey/white light from the overcast sky gives the scene a low contrast look, bringing out the blue and greys. 

• Garden

  • The driveways paving is cracked and plantlife is growing through the gaps

  • As it's winter, the grass is shorter, but thick and deep green. 

  • The trees mostly bare with a few withered leaves hanging on 

  • The road side wall has various graffiti tags on it and looks more weathered, with ivy up much of the back of it. 

• House - Interior

  • Layout should be largely the same as the past, smaller objects may have moved or changed but furniture should stay the same between both to facilitate easy movement between the time periods. 

  • Lighting 

    • The windows are dustier and the grey-white light of an overcast day shines through them, this light does not cast rays through the window but instead gives a more even light, casting softer shadows

    • The houses artificial lights are turned off, but the rooms should be bright anyway (may require hidden light sources) 

 

3D Modelling & Textures

 

Detail

• The models should be fairly simplistic with a low polygon count to give a slightly cartoonish stylization, especially in the past time period. 

• However, the objects within the building should be numerous and cluttered enough to still feel like the house  has a high level of overall detail

• Foliage should feel thick, with large opaque leaves, again with fairly low detail and a slightly cartoon style. Trees and long grass should sway in the wind to make the flora of the scene feel alive. 

Texture

 

• Textures should be more detailed in the present, with a more realistic weathered aesthetic, while in the past they should be more cartoonish, with more bright block colours, showing the nostalgia felt by the protagonist and the imperfection of their memory. 

The overall look should be such that objects and materials are easily recognisable without straying into photorealism. 

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I have made some prototypes of this 

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