Overview
"Zielarz" is a solo project I am working on that is currently under development. It is intended as an exploration of my Polish and Romanian identity, as well as a merging of my interests in 2D minigames and horror. The most recent build is playable from the attached link, though it remains in its early stages.
Level Design
As usual, I began the level design of "Zielarz" with a paper prototype. I knew I wanted there to be several parts of the town, inspired by a visit to a "skansen" or open-air historical museum in Poland.
The player's house, where the player will begin the game is separate from the rest of the map, and offers two paths forward. The first is towards more villagers, the second (prompted by a line of starkly yellow flowers) goes directly to the church. I wanted to give the player a little bit of space when they first entered the world, especially with the fog that I added to the game, to create intrigue. The fog and the surrounding forest imply that there is much of the world to be discovered, and slows the revealing of information to prevent the player from becoming overwhelmed.
Choosing to continue down the path will lead the player to the villagers, which eventually will prompt the players to continue on their journey. A dead end on one end of the fork will require players to turn around, leading them to the church.
The church, no matter what, is divided from the player with a river. The church is the center of the game's conflict, and the curse that has descended on the curse and the surrounding area is the one that had to be lifted. In this way, I wanted to vary the threat level that the player felt. With only environmental triggers, going near the church turns the sky red, signaling to the player that there is something sinister that lurks inside. I give the players two separate paths to the church, again reiterating the church's importance to the game's narrative. Although this area is not tree-laden yet, it will also sport a dense forest, though around the church, the trees will appear dead and leafless.
Eventually, crossing along the edge of the game map will teleport players to the other side. When this is done, the teleporting areas will have terrain smoothed, trees taken down, and fog density increased, giving the players the illusion that the game goes on forever, and then that they are trapped in this never ending world.
I chose a fog laden world for two reasons. I knew that I wanted to have the game be incredibly forest dense, and I had always thought that there is a magical quality to dense, fog-laden forests in Eastern Europe. Second, I was inspired by the game Silent Hill, in which fog is used to hide the game's incredibly short render distance. In order to not run into similar performance issues, I used the fog as a work around.
Programming & Game Design
"Zielarz" sports a number of intertwined systems. In order to complete the game, the player must find five items, each including a corresponding minigame. At this point, the player has a working inventory system that keeps track of all player items. A working "hand" system that keeps track of how many story items the player has collected, and the first minigames. Each of these systems involved an interconnected network of several lists and arrays that continuously check each other's contents.
Being incredibly interested in 2D minigames, I wanted to find a way to integrate them into a 3D space. Using cinemachine I was able to easily switch cameras to an overhead camera, and then use raycasts from the mouse position in order to simulate the existence of a 2D space on a 3D table.
The first minigame, pictured on the left, involves the capture of a white rabbit. The player will be prompted to obtain a rabbit's foot in order to break the curse, and will only be able to get one by capturing a rabbit live, bringing it to the butcher, and cutting the leg off themselves.
