Month: November 2021

Critical Analysis

The Silent City is a game that I’ve always wanted to make. Originally, it was called Shadow Shard. The goal of making the game was to blend the 2D platforming and stealth of Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment, 2012) with the aesthetics and pilfering mechanics of Thief: the Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios, 1998).

To do so, I had done much research into stealth mechanics and gameplay, as well as played both games: writing my “Understanding the Game Experience” essay around understanding stealth gameplay mechanics and their impact on player immersion, using restrictions and limitations to convey a sense of reality that no other game granted. Stealth game protagonists are either master assassins that dwell and excell in the shadows, or weak but wily thieves and skulkers who can disappear on a moment’s notice. I loved that dichotomy, that necessary flaw in the character which emphasized how important stealth gameplay was to the games.

Nowadays, most open world games have some stealth elements, or sections, but they always felt ‘added on’ like patchwork, rather than being a key component of the game itself. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks, 2011)’s sneak skill is admittedly overpowered, but its largely underwhelming mechanically. Aside from making the player virtually invisible in the eyes of non-player characters even they’re on their laps, or giving increased damage when hidden, it doesn’t do much else in terms of realism. There are no flaws, hence there can not be any sensation of immersion. I wanted to create a game that ‘fixed’ those issues I saw in many contemporary games, and give my players those emotions, tools, and challenges to play with.

So why did I build a Metroidvania/Platformer instead?
My other interest comes in roleplaying games, and environmental storytelling. Whilst I adore stealth games, and have since I was a teenager, my other passion has also been roleplaying games. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, The Witcher, Chrono Trigger, the whole Tales Of franchise are all games I’ve adored in my childhood.

Later on, I developped a taste for the metroidvania genre, 2D platforming action-adventure games, and their massive, sprawling worlds that were slowly unlocked through character upgrades. Games such as Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, Guacamelee, Roboto Gato, etc. I grew interested in the narrative potential of these games beyond simple dialogue systems, and how the restrictions of the medium (2D plane, platforming) could be used to the benefit of the game’s story.

Environmental storytelling came naturally. To build a story-coherent Metroidvania, one must put some logic aside and focus on background art, assets and environmental narrative to drive a compelling universe, rather than dialogue or realistic scenery. The narrative could be further pushed by creating mechanics intricately linked to the core player fantasy. La-Mulana makes you feel like an archaeologist, Blasphemous makes you feel like a violent zealot, Hollow Knight makes you feel like an explorer, and all of these player fantasies

And so I tried to combine both my love for roleplaying games, for metroidvanias, and for stealth games into this… ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ of a prototype. However, unlike our good Doctor, I have no intention in disregarding their patchwork son. The Silent City is a game I intend on refurbishing and polishing, and completing throughout the years, even if I do get a job (that said, I have so many projects, I will need some help).

Development, what went wrong, what went right:

What Went Wrong:
Over the summer and throughout the year, I had slowly been building up to marrying all my research and essays together into one, final project. Without being too harsh on myself, I feel like I haven’t necessarily succeeded in this. I had to cut a lot from the game itself, I had to remove half an entire level as I struggled with basic functions, HUD, and movement.

The Silent City isn’t an innovative game, mechanically, but it is an attempt at imitating these games from which I’ve taken inspiration. Development time, technical difficulties and outside factors made it so it took longer. Another thing I underestimated was level design, specifically puzzle and room design. The general image and layout of the level is fine, but when it comes to individual locations it becomes deceptively difficult to nail down the ideal layout of a room, so that it conveys what you want it to feel, and what you want the room to teach. A platforming challenge should focus on platforms, and some additional challenge. A rope challenge should be very much the same.

A mechanic I think needs working on is the journal. So far, the integer based journal entry system isn’t ideal, as it only displays the next entry rather than the relevant entry. I might change that for the showcase, and work on it after submission to find something more functionnal; like a boolean based system.

What Went Right:
Alongside WRATH 激怒, this is probably the best looking game I’ve made so far. The basic tutorial at the start of the game is functional, the movement is tight, and audio is sufficient to convey ambience, cues, and atmosphere. I had to drop a lot of things on the way, namely this serves as a vertical slice of what’s to come. Platforming puzzles, rope puzzles, exploration and lore. I originally had a whole half a level ready for the rest of the game, however I decided to drop that until later.

It requires some polishing, but I also believe I’ve done sufficiently well in terms of environmental storytelling to satisfy the itch I was trying to go for. The journal does fill in a lot of the gaps, however using the whole ‘stiffs, scribbles and signs’ technique, I managed to convey this is an abandonned, flooded and dangerous place using various sound cues and dead bodies.

Mechanically I’m pleased with the game itself, even if it needs considerable progress to come into what I fully envision this game to be. I have many things planned for it, and this is just the beginning. I do believe I’ve achieved what I could with the time I’ve been given, and once again time management has been the bane of my development process, however what I now have is viable.

So for now, here is the Silent City in all its glory:

What needs improving:

• Animation needs to be implemented
• Better sprites, using Unity’s tiling system I could make something more dynamic
• Sound effects and UI / HUD changes are due
• After death, there’s a problem with the camera, but its too late now to fix pre-submission.
• More narrative / fixing the journal system to make it more dynamic.
• Transition between scenes, please.

What needs added:

• Cohesive storytelling.
• Better enemies.
• A prologue that emphasises how important the rain gem is.
• Additionnal levels, additionnal features.
• Better sprites/character stuff in general.

Last one, then critical analysis, wooh!
I figured I would have to come around to case studies eventually, seeing as my previous logs were completely swamped with notes of my progress. These dev logs have more so me swimming back to the surface of whatever murky mire of mechanics I had going on at the time. Despite this, I still plan on finishing this game after hand-ins, as its essentially the game I’ve always wanted to make, barring a classic J-RPG with intricate storytelling, characters, etc.

So, first case study:
La-Mulana, (2012 Remastered Edition) is an exploration-metroidvania game where the player takes on the role of an archeologist who delves into the titular ruins of La-Mulana. La-Mulana has you exploring vast ruins sprawling with puzzles and monsters, the solution to the former residing in interpreting the clues left behind by civilizations beyond human comprehension. The game has you reading tablets to understand lore left behind by previous civilizations, as well as fighting back hordes of monsters that hold no greater purpose but to stiffle your continuous glorious progress deeper into these nonsensical ruins.

The great thing about La-Mulana is that it completely emulates how an adventurer-archaeologist would feel, to our eyes. No digging in the ground here, nor sir. We put ourselves in the shoes of previous peoples and try to understand the concepts and morals by which they were guided, all the while solving puzzles that pertain specifically to these civilizations. The Giants, the ‘2nd children’ have a different term for “SKY” than the ‘4th children’. And none of this is extra lore, knowing what terms mean what is crucial to progressing through the game, as well as solving the puzzles throughout the ruins.

I wished to emulate this sort of feeling, by creating the sense of ancient ruins and having some kind of log book wherein the player could investigate certain left over ‘landmarks’, and then have these landmarks written down in said journal for later use. Sadly, they’re mostly fluff and less crucial to gameplay than the rest of the game’s mechanics.

Second case study:
Thief the Dark Project (1998) is the grandfather of first person stealth games, the likes of Dishonored and pretty much every ‘stealth’ section you’ve had to play in contemporary first person games. You play as Garrett, a master thief whose sole reason for doing what he does best is so he can pay rent. Sadly for Garrett, and thankfully for us, he gets roped up into a city-scale conflict between two insane factions: one that wants to use a magical artifact to resurrect an ancient deity and return the City to nature (thereby brutally murdering everyone inside), and a zealous group of technology worshipping crusaders that oppose the former.

Thief excells as a stealth game because of its soundscape and sheer level of detail taken into consideration and how it uses sound, line of sight, surface textures and lightning to create the perfect skulking simulator. I had planned on originally making a stealth game for the sake of exploring these mechanics, but thought I did not have sufficient skill, and that it would take some time before I eventually got there. Thus I chose to use it as a case study at first, then as I worked on the game, I would apply stealth-based sections.

Thief has the player make use of various tools and arrows to get through the intricate and detailed levels of each… well level of the game. Water arrows to extinguish fires. Moss arrows to pad sound. Rope arrows to get to higher positions, etc. I sought to use this mechanic and apply it to the game here, however have only gone so far as the rope arrows for now.

Third case study:
Hollow Knight (2018) is one of the most acclaimed and rewarded metroidvania games of this current generation, with a sprawling diverse world filled to the brim with intricate world building and environmental storytelling details, it becomes mind boggling. When one considers all this was made by a team of 2-4 people, and the sheer size of Hallownest (that’s the world you explore in this Metroidvania), its rather mind blowing.

That said, I took much from Hollow Knight for the basic concepts and design of the Silent City, namely some world design rules I observed and detailed in Dev Log 2, which are the rules I plan on sticking by as I go on working on this project. I also took the jump from Hollow Knight, and tried my best with the graphics to convey some kind of greater world as you can see in the screenshot above. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve properly achieved this, as my graphical skills are somewhat lacking.

So, 4th and before last development diary. The base game is ‘complete’ so to speak. There is a beginning, a middle and an end. When you arrive at the door, you can press [E] to enter the Silent City, which really should have been the start of the game. But I would rather have had something that tutorialised the game’s mechanics, and then use this to build further on it.

So, all this to say we now have a functionning level with plenty of obstacles and other forms of platforming challenges. I don’t feel like this was really a vertical slice of anything in particular, but more so a prototype of what Silent City could be. Naturally there are further coding issues, such as using the journal icon to open the bloody journal rather than having to press [J], and then again the menu for the journal should be able to be used both with keyboard inputs and mouse, however it’s a bit too late for that.

A friend of mine gave me access to a video of his playthrough which provided some crucial feedback, as well as additionnal hints on how to better my jump, which I’ll be adding once submissions is done. The first step is to provide a functionnal game that ATTEMPTS at my original goal:

I’ve fixed the issue with the dots staying in place once one has shot all their arrows, as well as tweaked some of the camera motions to be less harsh and more upwards oriented. AKA: you can now see more content rather than a pitch black void below you taking up half the screen. I have also audio and music by Kevin MacLeod for ambience, as well as generic ambient music.

So, on to what needs to be done:
* Add better jumping;
* Make some smaller improvements, like the HUD button.

Here are some further images on the various improvements done to the Silent City:

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Its been a while since I’ve posted a development diary log, and well… I sort of need to seeing as its part of the process. A lot of things have been implemented since the last post (albeit shakily).

Amongst these things are: pixel art sprite models, a journal to track down journal entries about the world, particle effects (rain) and backgrounds. Most of the feedback given was to make things clearer, to cut down on the level’s content until I can develop it post-hand in. For now, I deem it important to bank on the use of rope arrows to further emphasise how crucial they are to the game.

I can’t help but be disatisfied with the lack of content here, compared to my Bachelor’s final project where I had multiple levels for the player to go through, I only have one here, which is rather weak to showcase compared to previous masters. (Who knew attempting to design a metroidvania was difficult?)

For now, the ideal concept is to get a level that gives the player sufficient challenges to get through, alongside platforming and rope challenges, to put things into context. My thesis was on environmental storytelling and worldbuilding, which banks alot on graphical storytelling – a thing I am unique inept at. Additionally, I originally wished to make a metroidvania or stealth-like game, but I feel like I might have spent too much time idling, or overdesigning things.

Here is how the game has evolved so far:

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Now, the only thing left is the main door, which when interacted with will end the game and bring the player to an end of level screen, likely with a “still under construction” placement, I’ll have to see. I fear I’ve dreamed too big.

The key feature implemented here was the journal itself. It functions off a very crude function that merely increments an integer, depending on the integer, it allows the display of certain entries, but I think I would have to find a more adaptable variant, as if someone misses even a single ‘exposition point’, then their journal remains incomplete, yes, but also out of synch: which is a problem I’ll have to find a solution to later (as in after submission).

What else… mostly practical, quality of life, improvements. The game has a hut which shows the health bar, arrows, available arrows and available journal entries. I’ll see if I can get some feedback about the whole thing, and perhaps change the healthbar to something like hearts instead.