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selina.nordin@futuregames.nu
+46 70 889 81 61
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SELINA NORDIN
Game Designer
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PROJECT INFO
Transient is a third person, horror, stealth game developed in seven weeks. Explore and solve puzzles in a 1950's environment and hide from the Shadow Monster in order to save your doll.
Roles: Gameplay designer & Product owner
Time: 7 weeks
Team size: 10 people (2 designers)
Genre: Stealth horror game
Engine: Unity
CONTRIBUTIONS
GAMEPLAY DESIGN
PRODUCT OWNER
OTHER
- Core gameplay
- Level progression
- Story progression
- Wrote user stories
- Kept track of the backlog
- Made the team keep the same vision
GAMEPLAY
Six-year-old Elizabeth is on the search for her beloved doll. She explores through her house and solves puzzles to get closer to her doll, but she is not alone... In the darkness wonders her biggest fear, the Shadow Monster. Elizabeth has to be quiet and hide to prevent the monster from getting her.
DESIGN PILLARS
Stealth
Exploration
Suspicion
MECHANICS
PLAYER
We decided to have three main focused mechanics for the player to bring out the three game design pillars.
Sneak/Hide
The game is highly focused on stealth, therefore the player has the option to hide inside or under furniture. When the player hides we decided that it was important that the player could see a little bit through the hiding place to know where the enemy was and when it was safe to leave.
Open cabinets
We decided to have openable cabinets to add to the exploration. This suited the environment and was a great place to hide keys or medicine for the player to find.
ENEMY
Medicine
Medicine is found a little bit into the game which gives the player a stamina bar and the ability to run. We decided to introduce this to the player later in the game to indicate that the game is about to change the pacing and giving them a way to easier escape the Shadow Monster.
The enemy is an AI that walks around the level searching for the player by using vision and sound.
Chasing phase
When the enemy sees the player the enemy will start chasing the player until the player is out of sight for a specific amount of time.
Top-down of enemy's sight
and hearing range
The enemy has a specific hearing and sight range that will detect the player if it gets too close or is too loud.
Looking phase
If the enemy hears the player the enemy will go to the location the player was last heard and look around. This is to give the player time to escape into a hiding place.
TWEAKING
We wanted the game to feel fair. The player should be able to hide from the enemy if he/she has enough stamina but get caught if they don't.
Player
Walk: the player has to feel slow and vulnerable but not too slow that it takes too long to get through the level.
Sneaking: was made a lower value than the walking to prevent the player from always sneaking. If the sneaking was too fast, the player would only sneak since it prevents the enemy from hearing them.
Sprinting: has to be faster than walking. If the sprint speed is too fast it would feel unnatural. Too slow would not make the sprint feel different from walking.
Enemy
Walk: The enemy should walk slow to give the player enough time to explore without getting caught but not too slow so that the player doesn't have to wait long for the enemy to leave when hiding
Chasing: The enemy has to be faster than the player's walk speed to be able to catch up to the player when chasing. However, the enemy has to be slower than the players sprint speed so that the player has a chance to out run the enemy when getting chased.
GAMEPLAY PROGRESSION
The idea behind Transient was to create a scary, exploration game where the player would feel both fear, panic and suspicion. We wanted the player to be able to have moments where they would hide in fear or run for their lives but also have time to explore and progress through the level.
ACT I - Introduction
(Cutscene) Wakes up in the middle of the night by the doll
1. Introduction to the environment, mechanics and the story
2. First objective: find a key to the kitchen storage
3. Introduction to the Shadow Monster and completion of the first objective
4. Introduction to the sprint mechanic
5. Finds the key to the attic & second objective: find the code to the locked safe
ACT II - The attic
6. Finds the code to the locked safe
7. Third objective: open the locked safe
8. Avoid the monster to be able to leave the attic
ACT III - The ending
9. Player opens the locked safe and gets the key for the child’s bedroom
10. Monster appears and a chase occurs
11. The child meets the doll in the child’s bedroom
(Cutscene) The monster comes in and they defeat the monster together
GUIDENCE
PRODUCT OWNER
As a product owner, I took care of the backlog, writing user stories and giving new tasks to teammates. Doing this also led to me doing a lot of playtesting. Whenever a programmer or designer was done with a task I tested it for bugs and gave them feedback. I was also responsible for making the feedback form and collecting the feedback we got when our game was sent out for playtesting.
I wanted to try out being the product owner for a project while I had the chance at Futuregames. It was fun and a great learning experience as it taught me how to plan and communicate better, as well as writing user stories.
ITERATIONS
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- Music & Trailer
- Quality Assurance