In the Beginning
was the Word
PLATFORM
Windows
GAME ENGINE
Cry Engine
ROLE
Game Design, Writing, 3D Modeling
PROJECT LENGTH
6 months
MY CONTRIBUTION
- Creation and Setup of VR puzzles
- Level Design, System Design
- Writing of Dialogue/ Narration for the game
- Creation of multiple 3D Assets (e.g. mushrooms, rocks)
Game Trailer
In the Beginning
was the Word…
…and the author writing it. His words and thoughts shaped the world around him – until his writer’s block obstructed his path. Take on the role of the author and dive into the beautiful fantasy forest of this world. Use the words you find to shape this magical realm in order to overcome the writer’s block in this VR puzzle game.
Let trees grow in the blink of an eye, destroy huge boulders with a snap of your fingers and make it rain at your will. Use the powers you have as the creator of this world to defeat your writer's block and find the words to change your world even more.
I developed the different puzzles and the level design within our game. Since we wanted narration within the game I wrote the text which the author reads and together with a colleague, and I was also responsible for some models within our environment.
Challenges
One challenge I encountered was during the design of a puzzle which revolved around growing and destroying trees in order to let the player roll a ball along a specific path over a chess field.
My first draft was too easy, so I redesigned the whole puzzle, making the correct path more complicated than before. I wanted the player to make the connection, that they first have to destroy a tree (trees are indicated as green ball in the picture on the right) to let the ball pass through until they hit a tree behind and then grow a tree at the right time so that the ball can move back some of the path in order to reach the right position (see lower left corner of the picture).
See the clip below as a reference of how the player can grow, destroy and roll the ball through the puzzle.
Chess Puzzle
Programs I used were ZBrush for the sculpting, Maya for low poly modelling, Retopology and UV-Mapping, Substance Painter for Baking, Photoshop for creating the one-sheet paper and Cry Engine for implementing and setting up our main game scene.
