Osakabe
Stealth Horror | University Project | November 2020 – July 2021
19 Person Team
More Content Below
Summary
This level was made for the Osakabe university project, a stealth horror game where the player tries to make their way through a Japanese castle while avoiding the Osakabe monster.
About The level
About Osakabe
- Planned, Built, Playtested, and Iterated in 7 weeks
- Built in Unreal Engine 4
- Created specifically for the Osakabe University Project
- Singleplayer Stealth-Horror
- Semi-Linear Level Structure
- Player Only Has Defensive Capabilities
Project Responsibilities
- Creating the first level.
- Visual scripting for the closet interactable.
- Designing the game’s core concept.
- Researching into and deciding the game’s environment.
Final Product
HAll
The hall is the first area players encounter when playing the level, it offers access to the safe room and has paths leading to the kitchen with the basement key, to the supply room, and to the main hall.
The player has access to a number of hiding spots even though the monster only patrols the back part of this area where it connect to the main hall and kitchen.
The room gives the player a key to the supply room, which gives them access to some of their abilities, the key was made easy to spot and obtain to onboard the door and key mechanic the game makes use of in this level and the next.
Main Hall
The main hall was as the name implies an important part of the level. The player has to cross this room several times to complete the level. It’s a major interaction point with the Osakabe as a big part of it’s patrol path is through this room. The room the room acts as a central location in the level with the kitchen, exit, basement, and hall connecting to it.
The area has several hiding spots except for the middle area connecting to the basement, the player must time their entrance to the basement by avoiding the monster.
Since the exit door key is located in the basement, the lack of hiding spots at it’s entrance makes the escape to the exit a bit more risky.
Door Key Rooms
Two other rooms in the level are the kitchen and the basement. Both contain keys the player needs to gather at one point to progress through the level.
The kitchen contains the basement key which of course gives them access to the basement. The Osakabe patrols this room but the caved in hallway that leads back to the hall section isn’t looked at.
The basement is blocked off from the player initially, having to gather the key to it’s entrance in the kitchen first. The basement is a dead end making the player more vulnerable as escape isn’t as easy. The basement contains the exit key which the player needs in order to exit the level through the main hall.
Planning
Playtesting
The game changed a lot over the course of playtesting. During the lockdown I playtested with testers over voice call, with them streaming their footage. We also had people on youtube playtest our game on their own which gave some interesting insights as there was no influence from any developers being present at the playtest.
A lot changed over the course of playtesting. The entrance to the basement first didn’t require a key but had a puzzle using the lantern mechanic in the game. This turned out to be very unclear to players and despite our effects just didn’t work out. It was replaced with a lock like the exit door, the key of which was placed in the kitchen area.
The Osakabe’s patrol path was a bit smaller before, not entering the hall section of the level, but this limited interaction with the monster too much and also made the hall section feel deprived of gameplay.
*Footage from the video is of an early build of the game.
Post-Mortem
This project would have gone a lot differently of course if we knew the things we learned while developing it. The foremost thing I would change is the level kit being made by environment artists, normally they would follow guidelines set with rational level design but because miscommunication and the separation of the team’s disciplines for a whole block because of school curriculum caused the environment artists to make them this created a lot of issues for the level design part of it and in extension the game itself. The modular asset pieces had to conform to what the level design required, which often didn’t make things easy, trying to fit pieces together, or being forced to make them clip partially through other pieces.
I would communicate more with the other level designer and put more effort into working on a coherent plan for the game’s difficulty curve, as I feel like in the final state it didn’t feel fully satisfying. I would have also changed the first hallway, either changing the level structure as a whole or reducing it’s size, to have the player interact more with the monster.