My main task within this game was to help define the core mechanics and narrative as well as do level design for the second half of the game.

The narrative plays on an island and the player slips into the role of a godly judge whose for the sake of the judgement becomes detective-like: the player has to collect evidence about the doings of the judged deity. The basic mechanics we have are walking, jumping, collecting, and interacting with objects as well as with characters. We decided to create diaries which are scattered around the world and can be collected. There are some characters the player can talk to for gaining information, as well as some objects which can be interacted with in order to unlock dialogue options. The collected information is saved in the players journal, which serves as an overview of what has been discovered.

Challenges

The design pillars for our game were the aspects of exploration and investigation. Our goal and challenge was to create an environment that uses realistic assets and, in general, to create a stunning and mysterious look that awakens in the player the desire to explore the environment. Through having a twisted, interesting backstory; detective mechanics; and a more ambiguous, as well as morally grey, deity. We wanted to foster the investigation aspect of our game, having the uncovering of the story events as the main focus of the player and the individual morals of the player as an anchor for the final decision of the game.

Following the principles of the MDA framework (Hunicke, Leblanc, Zubek, 2004) from our game emerge the aesthetics of: discovery, narrative, expression, and fantasy. Discovery is covered through the focus of exploration in the game. The game is in the first-person view so that the perspective of the player feels more involved and personal. Throughout a game session, the player starts to uncover uncharted territory.

Narrative emerges from all the collectable journals and interactions in the game, leading to a constantly changing view of the world and of the judged deity throughout the game experience. Both discovery and narrative play a great role in building the understanding of the player about the world and its inhabitants. We have expression through the weight of the individual moral and the decision-making of the player. Even though we use realistic models, elements of make-believe (fantasy) play a role as well, like in the narrative aspects such as the representation of the different roles of gods, the invention of an almighty judge, and the divine blood and its consequences for the world; or in the visuals aspects such as the use of a mysterious green light on the floor of the deity’s home and the golem in the village.