Urban Explorers is an adventure game in which you command a group of three explorers from a RTS-esque point of view through abandoned architecture, searching for hidden secrets.

Background

Created during a module during the BA Game Design, the task was to inspect old video games of the 80s and 90s and borrow mechanics from them, then turning them into a new game idea. Inspirations were mainly Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 and The Elder Scrolls: Arena for their adventure-themed settings. The RTS-style point of view was loosely inspired by Archon: of Light and Dark and more modern RTS games.

Gameplay Video

An open world game in a hostile environment

The core idea for this game project started one year prior, where I came up with the idea for a custom post processing shader for Unity. It included an effect that would desaturate the entire world while preserving the color in certain areas of the world, controlled by placing point sources in the scene.

Once this was done, I started asking myself:

What if this unusual effect became part of an actual game project?

Concept

Due to personal interest and search for a new learning experience I decided to create an open world game, in which the player's goal is to return color to the grayed out environment. The colors were separated from the environment and turned into crystalline shapes.

World Building

The cause for this unusual phenomenon is a mysterious force (called "Corruption") that is spreading throughout the world, consuming it gradually. If not contained, the condition worsens and proceeds to consume all light in the area, leaving it completely black and making it inaccessible to the player.

Located in the center of the map lies the wizard's tower, which will become the main hub for the majority of the game. Here, players can set up their home base and perform most of their tasks, including crafting items and performing research. On top of the tower is an observatory that gives them an overview of the situation of the environment.

Crafting

Through crafting, the player can combine the collected crystals into more powerful elements, each having unique properties and uses. Crystals can be combined to form higher tier crystals, as shown in the element chart.

Chart showing the different elements and their relationships to each other

A crafting station used to combine two elements into a higher tier element

Prototype for an inventory and crafting UI

The five platonic solids as primal elements and their derivatives

Player Analysis

As part of the first four weeks of the project, I wrote a simple script which automatically recorded the player's interactions and their path through the level. A subsequent analysis of the playthroughs from the exhibition shows that the game's objectives were not communicated clearly enough and players often didn't know where to go.

Reviewing the data gathered from different playthroughs

Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology. There are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning and prototyping. From: processing.org

I was first introduced to Processing during the first semester of BA Game Design, fascinated by its simplicity and potential to quickly make simple games or interactive applications with it. While processing could (in theory) be used to render fully textured 2D or 3D games, I am mostly interested in making retro looking vector graphics games since such graphical styles are not as straightforward to reproduce in modern game engines such as Unity.

Flight Simulator

Maze Escape

Inspired by early 3D vector graphics games, especially the first person game Maze from 1973, I created a three-dimensional maze exploration game as a final project for Game Technologies I. The twist: players cannot backtrack. When players inevitably move into a dead end and are forced to turn back, they fall through the floor and respawn at the beginning of the maze. By remembering the layout of the maze over repeated attempts, players are eventually able to locate the exit at the far end. Power-ups scattered throughout the level help the player by allowing players to see the general direction towards the exit, seeing through walls, or even being able to break them.

The layout of the maze is randomly generated at the beginning of each playthrough.

Falling throught the floor after backtracking

Seeing through walls with the X-Ray powerup

Minecraft Clone

As a little tech project at the beginning of Game Technologies II, I wanted to try and push processing to its limits by trying to make a playable Minecraft clone, which includes basic world generation, player movement and block placement.

Textures taken from: Retro NES Texture Pack

Generated Terrain (with textures from <i>Minecraft</i>)

A collaboration with Anic Müri and Christian Fluri

Ideation

During our module Farbe, Licht & Interaktion, we got roughly one and a half weeks to create a installation that uses light as a medium. We decided early on to make an installation similar to the Light Projection project from a year ago, but turning it into a playable game. To make it as accessible as possible (because it was going to be displayed in an exhibition) and due to the relatively short timeframe, we came up with the idea of making a pac-man style game mechanic where the player can move along a fixed path and dodge enemies.

Just like last time, we picked a corner of the room and dotted it with white blocks, which were then precisely measured and mapped in 3D model for a correct projection.

Lighting

To enhance the experience and to try out new tech we looked at during the module, we also installed two spot lights to the sides and three LEDs on top of the three tall blocks that were controlled by the game using the DMX protocol. The lights change color depending on the scenery and game state. Gameplay-wise, one of the three LEDs would flash, indicating the player's next target. Reaching the light would then switch to another scenery.