top of page

Labyrinth

Labyrinth_Project.png

Labyrinth is a high anxiety puzzle game developed by Strike Force 6 based on the original writings of author Louise Gikow. The main protagonist of the game is a young girl named Sarah Williams who enters an expansive maze in search of her younger brother Toby who has been taken by the Goblin King Jareth.  Featuring a first person camera and puzzle solving style gameplay, the player must use her lantern to shed light on the labyrinth’s many secrets. However, lurking in the dark midst of this maze is a terrifying monster that will put an end to Sarah’s quest if she is seen. Sarah must discover how to make her way through the many traps that lay in hiding while always being cautious of the terrible monster in the darkness.

​

​

Project Design Goals

 

  • Create a fun world that creates a sense of anxiety in the Unreal Engine 4

  • Demonstrate skills in environment puzzle design and visual scripting

  • Create an interesting game mechanic that shows long term gameplay potential

  • Exercise teamwork skills & deliver a high quality experience using Perforce as part of the main pipeline

Platform

Windows PC

​

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

​

Language

UE4 Blueprints

​

Tools Used

Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Photoshop, Illustrator, Substance Painter & Design, Perforce, Houdini, SpeedTree

​

Duration

9 Weeks

​

Completion

2016

​

Team Size

6

​

Role

Concept, Level Design & Layout, whitebox, Puzzle Scripting, Pacing, Scripted Events, Narrative design, Lighting & Atmospheric Effects, Audio Design

Labyrinth Game Design Document Sample Download

Detailed Info

The Viz Department's Summer Industry course gave me the opportunity to develop Labyrinth with the help of 5 undergraduate students in just 9 weeks. This project gave me the opportunity to work with and be mentored by EA BioWare’s Technical Art Director, Gracie Strittmatter. With her mentorship, I was able to test my leadership skills and create simple solutions to technical design, art, and development challenges with my team using the Unreal Engine 4 as our Software Development Kit and Perforce as our main source control.

Features I Designed and Built

 

  • Narrative design (story, characters, locations, cut-scene and dialog scripts)

  • First person POV puzzle design, prototyping, and construction

  • Level progression

  • Character progression

  • Environment chasm puzzle design

  • Riddle puzzle design

  • Riddle puzzle item placements

  • Monster encounter, behavior, & placement

  • Checkpoint placement

  • Look & Feel

  • Lantern behavior and design

  • Character controller

  • HUD

    • Reticle​

  • Environment Design

    • Player pathing​​

    • Asset placement

 

Visual Scripting (Unreal Blueprints)

​

  • Chasm puzzles

    • Platform rotations​

    • Braziers

    • Door locks

  • Barriers

    • Gates​

    • Drawbridge

    • Invisible walls

  • Dynamic wall/bush/cliff tool

  • Monster AI

  • Camera Cutscenes to preview puzzles and emphasize story

  • Collectible pick-up and counter

  • Level Intro and Outro Scripted Events

  • Character controller

  • Music, ambient sounds, audio cues, etc.

  • HUD

    • Reticle​

  • Menu (Widgets)​

  • Landscape Materials

  • Light Darkening Event

Level Design

Full Map

Design Considerations

  • Environmental conditions and "ground clues" (i.e. stone tile versus grass, or dark vs darker)​​

  • Place pathfinding nodes for AI Monster

  • Qualities of a Horror Game (Dis-empowerment, Isolation, Tension, Lighting, Sound, Uncertainty)

  • Narrative events and encounters

  • Player Progression (flow of learning mechanics)

  • Important landmarks and means to identify for the player to identify where they have already been.

​

The images above show a closer breakdown to how the games large map was made. First I made sketches on paper and on a marker board to get the general idea of what we wanted. Then I broke down the world map into three sections and lastly populated the sections. In order to rapidly whitebox the level, I created a drag and Blueprint Object that can be set dressed with the appropriate assets quickly and efficiently

​

Again, Labyrinth is separated into three sections, Section 1: The Mouth of the Labyrinth, Section 2: Into the Depths of Darkness, and Section 3: Belly of the Beast. There are a total of three doorways called “doorKnockers” that require a special task to be completed or trick to be solved before they open. There is a doorKnocker between Section 1 and 2, Section 2 and 3, and one last doorKnocker between the player and the end of the game. Between these doorKnockers, the labyrinth will offer a series of puzzles and mind games to challenge the players resolve.

​

As this is a labyrinth, it is intended to keep the player feeling a sense of confusion. However, the player has the ability to light unlit objects (such as torches) that are carefully placed within the environment to help them orient where they have been.

Qualities of a Horror Game

​

Not being a fan of the "Horror Game" genre personally, I had to do some research to ensure the designs would maximize the overall experience the team wanted the player to have. I narrowed this down to 6 main features:

​​​

1.   Dis-empowerment​​

  • The player is weak

  • The player must face a potential threat, and have no other option but to run and hide

​

2.    Isolation

  • The player is alone

  • Sometimes creating a sense of companionship and then taking it away can lead the player to a far more terrifying state because they know what they’ve lost and therefore should feel insecure.

​

3     Tension

  • The player cannot be comfortable

  • Scarcity

  • The player has something, but it is limited

  • For example, the player should ask “Do I explore that room? It could have what I need or it could have a monster.”

  • When can the player save? The player may not want to die because they’ll have to go through something scary again when the game resets to a previous state.

  • Force players to backtrack to an area they previously thought was safe

  • Puzzles prey on a player’s desire to progress and escape challenges

  • Keep the player in the dark at certain points; as in don’t throw the enemy right at the player

​

4.    Lighting

  • Place shadows in just the right places

  • Force players to bring a light close to see what is in the shadows

  • Revealing things by light can be subtle but freaky or extremely dramatic

​

5.    Sound

  • Use sound to build suspense

  • Either jump scare (quiet to suddenly loud) or eerie (creates a sense of tension)

​

6.    Uncertainty

  • Let the player see the monster but be unsure of where the monster is going

  • Hearing a scary sound from a series of doors, but make it unclear which door it came from

  • Allow players to think they stopped the monster, but the only way to be sure is to consume some limited resource

  • EX from another game: The player can kill a zombie but there is a chance it will come back faster and more powerful. But if the player burns the body using matches, they can be assured that the body will stay dead. These matches can be a scarce resource that requires the player to choose whether or not to save the match for something else, or be certain the zombie is dead, less it might come back.

Progression Timeline

Sections 1-3

Design Considerations

  • Qualities of a Horror Game (Dis-empowerment, Isolation, Tension, Lighting, Sound, Uncertainty)

  • Narrative events and encounters

  • Character Progression (flow of learning mechanics)

The player will encounter a monster in Section 2 of the labyrinth. At this point in the game the monster will begin roaming Section 1 and Section 2. The monster does not know you exist; it’s simply moving around. If the monster sees that player, it will kill the player almost instantly. When the player reaches Section 3, the monster will begin actively searching for the player. Therefore, the number of encounters with the monster will increase. At this point, the monster will follow this behavior through all three sections of the game.

Player Pathing

Section 2.7

Design Considerations

  • Test player with new ability (balanced flow)

  • Important object placement locations

  • The players path must be open to escape the monster (except when the player fails to see a trap) - negative reinforcement learning

  • Qualities of Horror Game (Dis-empowerment, Isolation, Tension, Lighting, Sound, Uncertainty)

​

The design of this area did not meet up to the full scope of the project idea, however, it did serve its purpose to test the players understanding of the Veiled Truth Oil mechanic while under duress of the monster. 

​

The images above show the potential paths the player could go assuming the player made the best possible decision upon entering Section 2.7. The monster will be roaming the area and give chase to the player if the player is seen until the player is our of view for a few seconds. The purpose of this monster, is to emulate a sense of anxiety and fear while making simple interactions within the environment. 

​

Light from the Veiled Truth Oil can be used to reveal hidden secrets throughout the labyrinth. This comes in handy when faced with walls that appear to be present when in fact, they have no collision. 

Chasm Puzzle Mechanic Progression

Section 1.6

Design Considerations

  • Pacing

    • Time between each puzzle must not be too long or to short

​

Based within a chasm, there are platforms that move when a lever is pulled. The lever acts as a toggle between two different states of the platform. When the player moves the platform the first time, a short cinematic will occur showing the player what is happening. Each lever has a visual clue on it that indicates what platforms it moves.

​

The player will encounter a single 'Corner Lever' first; learning that pulling that lever type will rotate 'Corner Platforms'. Then the player will a single 'Straight Lever'; learning that pulling that lever type will rotate 'Straight Platforms'. Thirdly, the player will encounter an area that requires navigating through a 'Corner Platform' and a 'Straight Platform'. This is to reinforce in the players mind the mechanic just learned. Then lastly, at the end of Section 01, the player will encounter a more challenging puzzle utilizing 2 of each platform type. This servers to test their abilities before entering a more challenging area.

Chasm Puzzle Mechanic Example

Section 1.6

Design Considerations

  • Is it fun?

    • Each Chasm Puzzles needs to be fun and feel that they belong in the environment and are not simply slowing down gameplay

​

The objective for each chasm puzzle is to navigate across the chasms by pulling a lever that rotates the corresponding platforms sharing its type and light braziers to lower the locks on a door barring passage to the next area.

Credits

Daniel House

​

Sam Hooser

Jordan Moore

Rebecca Migl

Taig Lyons

Jacob Davis

bottom of page