DE-LIVE-RY
Game Description
De-live-ry is a 2D narrative-driven game done in Unity Engine about the fictional town of Tat Tsai seen through the eyes of a delivery boy. In the narrative, a corporate company by the name of Catching.Co has moved into the quiet town and has greatly boosted its economy. However, as the game progresses the player will learn that there may be something darker beneath the hood as characters go missing and shady characters are about.
MY CONTRIBUTIONS
NARRATIVE DESIGN
The story is delivered through the eyes of the player character, and no information unavailable to said character is given to the player. Hence, delivering the narrative was a great challenge in this project as all the information had to be experienced by the character or implied by their surroundings.
PROJECT INFO
Team size: 4 | Unity Engine | Duration: 12 Weeks
Created by: Team Wanton Doodle
HIGH CONCEPT
You play as a courier obliviously delivering packages in a town that may be hiding a dark secret.
DESIGN PILLARS
IMPLIED NARRATIVE
All narrative elements should be portrayed through the eyes and ears of the character through visuals and audio. No explicitly stated facts.
BELIEVABLE ATMOSPHERE
Build the mood and feel of each level through the atmosphere by using colours and sounds that fit the mood of the level.
HUMOR
Add a comedic tone to make the otherwise serious narrative into something more light-hearted and palatable
GAME MECHANICS
BICYCLE
Primary mechanic
This is essentially moving in the game. However, it does utilise some gamification elements such as getting stunned if u bump into objects at high speed to provide some player engagement. This is especially so when the package has been picked up and the timer for the delivery begins.
NPC INTERACTION
Primary mechanic
There are 2 types of NPC interactions that involve dialogue.
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Passive Interaction: This is when a NPC goes about its business and the player is able to talk to them if they so choose to learn a bit more about the NPC or the Town. These are marked out with the "!" icon.
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Active Interactions: This is when an NPC will walk up to the player and disrupt them for a conversation. These are used to either deliver key narrative plot points or as speed bumps to hinder the player from delivering the package on time
BICYCLE BELL
Secondary mechanic
The bell is another method to interact with the NPC's in the environment be it in a more rude manner. With it, you can trigger events by startling NPC's causing them to do various actions or move out of the way.
DELIVERY TIMER
Secondary mechanic
Once the package has been picked up, the game pace and intensity shift from calm exploration to a frantic dash to the finish with an addition of a delivery timer. Failing to meet the delivery time will result in dire consequences for the player's character.
PACKAGE TOSSING
Secondary mechanic
At the end of the delivery, you are required to toss the package to the delivery point. This is manifested in a throwing minigame to portray a bit of humor and poke fun at how badly packages can be treated in real life.
GAME LOOP
Engagement Types: Exploration | Novelty
NARRATIVE PLOT
3-Act Structure
FIRST ACT
Exposition
The player is introduced to the coastal town known as Tat Tsai. in the year 2014, a large company by the name of Catching.Co moves in and sets up shop. This greatly boosts the town's economy and soon the company is the heart of the town. The player character is then introduced as a new employee of Catching.Co's delivery branch.
SECOND ACT
Rising Action
As the player character begins his first day of work, he is sent off by his mother who waits patiently for his return home. Unbeknownst to the two, something goes wrong during the delivery and your character is last seen surrounded by police. Level 2 begins and the player is now in control of another character. What happened to the previous one? A man goes missing, then a couple loses their child too. What is going on?
THIRD ACT
Climax
At the climactic level, it is midnight and no one is about. The character comes across the couple who lost their child desperately searching but is not able to help. Continuing on the delivery, when the package is collected the street lights turn off. Something doesn't feel quite right. What is in the package? Will the character deliver it as he was told or is there someone else this package should go to?
NARRATIVE DELIVERY
EXPERIENCE
The whole narrative is delivered to the player through the eyes of the character/characters. What the character experiences are all the player has to piece together the hidden story behind De-live-ry.
EXAMPLE OF NARRATIVE EXPERIENCE
In this scene from the second level, the player will notice how his character looks different and an NPCÂ previously said to be your mother seems to be looking for her son.
SUCCESS & FAILURE
There is no gameplay success or failure in De-live-ry, the outcome of each level will lead to slight changes in the following levels such as different NPC dialogue or additional props that provide clues to the narrative.
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Think of the experience as a story with multiple endings that depend on how the player did.
LEVEL DESIGN
Design Process
CONSTRAINTS
Step 1
The level design process for De-live-ry started with the gameplay. This is to define the level's needs and constraints. In this case, what was needed was a town layout where the place looks partially developed/modernised.
ATMOSPHERE
Step 2
Once the needs were identified, I then went to consult with my artist on the town's culture and architecture. We researched locations and different styles of Asian cities to find a look that suited a developing city.
EXPERIENCE DRAFTÂ "LAYOUT"
Step 3
With the towns, general atmosphere decided, I then went to draft out a list of locations and laid them out on pen and paper. Locations like a temple, clinic, and night market were some things added to give life and add narrative significance to the world we were crafting.
EXPERIENCE DRAFTÂ "OBJECTIVE"
Step 4
After the layout of the town was complete, I started placing the player objectives and NPC's. During this process, I tried to route the player around the map across 3 levels to have them experience all the locations in different day/night settings.
PROTOTYPE & ITERATE
With the plan all set, I start prototyping in Unity and get others to test the level. With the results of the playtest I iterated on the level and go back to the previous steps.
Step 5
DRAFTED LOCATIONS
This is a reference image given to my artist of where the different architecture styles should be applied. A thing to note is how we wanted the place to look more developed on the left and gradually more run down as you go to the pier on the left.
FINAL LAYOUT
This is the fully rendered version of the town. I got my artist to use a different colour palette for the more modernised Catching.Co buildings on the left in order to give off a more noticeable transition.
PROJECT CONCLUSION
Learning Points
GAME LOOP
Major learning point
At the beginning of the project, we went in with a vision of a narrative experience with minimal gameplay and more story elements. This did not go so well as we failed to consider the game loop properly which caused issues with player engagement. The players were simply moving from point A to B without being pressured or properly incentivised.
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This was remedied down the line through multiple iterations of the game loop which resulted in us adding in the timer and etc to properly consider what the player is actually engaged with when playing the game.
NARRATIVE DELIVERY
Major learning point
The initial concept of De-live-ry was supposed to use a radio talkshow to convey most of the narrative. This lead to many problems with regards to player attention and other issues. Hence when we swapped over the concept to utilise NPC conversations we felt the game to be lacking in the gameplay aspect.
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To remedy this we had to consult the new game loop and consider what would be the best way to deliver key plot points organically and sub-points as a reward for player exploration. This lead us to use the level design to help guide the player down paths of discovery where optional areas may hold the sub-plots while main areas use active NPC interactions to convey key points.
RESEARCH
Minor learning point
One thing that went really right for this project was the research we did on location and scenery. As a student game project, it is often the case that designers and artists over scope the project. This was no exception but through the work ethic of my artist and good subject matter research, we were able to churn out art assets without the need to go back and redo things because they didn't fit in.