Various In Game Screens
I have accomplished so much today. Since my last post I
have created various “screen shots” for certain important parts of the game.
Here they are!
Lianna’s
Interactive In Game Map
Scattered throughout Distorted Deliriums world will be
various blood stained marks on the walls. When investigated, these marks will
become maps which Lianna/the player can update in their journal so that they
have a map around. The example here is blatantly obvious, slap bang in the
middle of a wall and its very bright. As the game progresses the map markings
will become increasingly harder to find and often players will be left without
areas of the map filled in.
Once the player does find a map, they can “activate it”
and Lianna will draw it down in her journal. Once this is done, the player can
access their journal at any point in the game and view their status in the game
world.
Lianna’s Journal will have a greyed out colour for the
floor plan of the museum every time she discovers a new floor. This doesn’t
mean the player will know every where on that floor, because its not the map,
its simply a greyed out area which indicates to the player the areas they
haven't discovered yet. This wont be told to the player however, players don’t
really get much in this game >:D
Doors that the player has tried to enter and are locked
are marked in red, doors which are open are marked in black. This is about as
much help as the player gets ;)
When
the Player Finds A Diary
Players will be able to find diaries written by various
members of Lianna’s family as they travel around the museum, the harder they
explore, the more diary entries they find leading to them learning more about
the game and story.
Like other intractable objects, diary clippings will
glow so that the player can see them and tell them apart from other random
objects.
When a player picks up the diary page, the screen will
blur out behind the note and fade to black as the player reads the diary entry.
They will get the option to flick through to other pages of the diary (if it is
a long entry) or they can return to the game or journal from viewing.
I created these screen shots in Photoshop using various new fonts, brushes and textures
I have been referencing into my work recently.
The idea is that it would happen like this:
Player finds note > picks up note
> as note comes up onto the screen, the edges around it blur into the
background eventually turning black >
the player is then greeted with an over screen text box displaying the diary
entry (as we fear the font may not be readable by everyone) > arrows pop up
on screen indicating there might be more diary entry to read > if not, the
player can simply quit back to game > the diary entry is then stored in the
players journal.
Finding
Family Photographs
Another way to find out more about the game and learn
the story is to find family photographs. These are similar to the family diary
entries only they are photographs.
When the player picks them up, the same thing happens to
the screen, however, instead of text obscuring the image there will simply be a
small tag line appear which names the photograph and gives the player better
understanding of it and how it relates to the game.
For example, here I used a photograph I took recently in
Florida of a bar because I really liked the way all the bottles were stacked
up. I edited it in Photoshop to make it look more “vintage” (it was supposed to
be taken when Lianna was very young) and slapped a caption on it. Its suppose
to represent Lianna’s alcoholic parents.
Psyche
Notes
Another in game collectable are psyche notes. These are
notes which are spawned into the game in amounts relative to Lianna’s psyche,
as well as just randomly.
They are split into 2 types, notes from Lianna’s “sane
self” and notes from her “in-sane self”. The higher Lianna’s psyche the higher
chance the player will have of picking up in-sane notes. In-sane notes will be
disturbing and often very dark to try and twist Lianna’s mind into being
mentally ill. An example is shown below…
However, if the player remains with a low psyche then
they will find more sane notes. These are directly linked to the “good” ending
of the game and will be rarer and harder to find! Sorry! Sane notes will often
remind Lianna of her “good” life and possibilities for coming out of this
nightmare “sane” as opposed to mentally ill.
Navigating
Lianna’s Journal
Lianna’s journal can be accessed from both an in game
keyboard key short cut or by entering the inventory and manually selecting it.
From there the player will see this page with some very basic options.
Again, this is another piece I have been working on in
Photoshop making use a various free textures and brushes I have downloaded
specially for this project.
The player can either access their map,
family diaries, sanity notes or family
photo’s. We
haven't included Lianna’s OWN photographs here because of two reasons. 1, she
isn't using an instant camera such as a Polaroid and therefore can’t print off
instant pictures to put in her photo journal and two, we are giving the player
the ability to scroll through the photographs they take in the game on their
actual camera as a separate mechanic.
So, anyway, the player would simply click their mouse
over the option and it would flick through as if it were an actual journal,
making the paper sounds and everything, until they got to the right page.
For example, if the player wanted to view any diary
entries they had found, they would click the family diaries link and be taken
to a page like this, where all the diary entries would be listed, in the order
they were picked up, for the player to then click on to view.
Once they have clicked on an entry they wish to view,
the screen will fade instantly to black while the diary entry pops up on the
screen. This time there is no wait for the white text to pop up, it comes up
straight way for easy and fast reading in case there are any clues or important
information that needs to be read!
The same can be done with family photographs, once the player clicks on the family photograph link in Lianna's journal, they are taken to all the family photographs they have collected in game. From here, the player can click through in the same way to view all the photographs and their tag lines/information.
In
Game “Tells” When You’re Dying
Previously I wrote up the game mechanics and I
specifically detailed the events which would occur when Lianna was in the
process of dying.
There are 3 stages of visual tells which indicate to the
player that they are in a colossal amount of danger and must remove themselves
quickly to safety. Using one of Olives
concept designs, http://olivegamesartanddesign.blogspot.co.uk/, I was able to illustrate over the top, using
Photoshop and my new brushes, the visual stages of death.
Here is the playing screen normally, without the player being close to death:
Stage 1: minor desaturation of colour on screen
Stage 2: More desaturation of colour and red strokes
appear in outer edges of the screen.
Stage 3: Total loss/desaturation of colour and severely
bright warning strokes pulse on screen with drips of blood.
Texture references
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