Mystery Mansion
Overview:
You are an adventurer walking in a deep forest. Suddenly, you stumble upon a mystery mansion. With curiosity, you decide to explore the mansion, only to find that it is full of mysteries and puzzles. Each solved puzzle reveals a part of the family's history, ultimately leading to the discovery of a hidden treasure.
Selling Point:
Setting:
Mansion in the middle of an unknown forest
Objectives:
Get to the master bedroom
My Role:
Lead Engineer and level/puzzle designer
Project Background:
My colleague and I created an escape room-type video game using Unreal Engine. Our only engineer dropped out at the beginning of the class, so I took over the position.
This project made me realize how one role can impact and reduce the workload of another role by simply following the template created by the team.
Story Behind The Level:
Most escape room-type video games do not have any negative consequences for the player and allow them to try every possible way to solve the puzzle. However, our game will have hazards placed throughout the mansion that will require the player to be more thoughtful of their actions.
Level Design
My goal is to let the player explore room by room. Each room has its own puzzle and the player has to solve the puzzle to obtain the key which can be used to unlock the next room.
In the final version, many things changed due to size differences and unrealistic appearances. The house that our team created looked very empty because it was too big. We expected it to look better if we furnished it, but the result did not align with our intentions and is too far along to be changed.
What I learned: I should block out the furniture with shapes first to determine if the house looks too empty or not.
First floor (Draft)
Second floor
Puzzle Design
There will be a total of 5 main puzzles in this game:
Caesar Cipher Puzzle: The player needs to find two pieces of a cipher, combine them, and find the hidden meaning to get the kitchen key.
Acid Sink Puzzle: The player has to find water to mix with the acid sink to lower the acid level and obtain the pantry key at the bottom of the sink.
Blood Stain Puzzle: The player needs to mix potions from flowers in the greenhouse and pantry to clear out the bloodstain, which will reveal a passcode.
Digital Safe Puzzle: The player needs to get a passcode from the bloodstain to unlock and get the nursery key.
Statue Puzzle: The player needs to find all the alphabets around the house to unlock the statue and get the master bedroom key.
Engineer
Lists of my proud engineers:
All puzzles and obstacles: This is the hardest part because each puzzle needs its own Blueprint that cannot be reused over time. (This includes all the interactable items that are used in the puzzle such as flowers, potions, keys, and the alphabet).
Notification System: A function that anyone in our group can use to write a notification for the purpose of informing the player. Such as “The door is locked.”
Inventory System: A system that allows players to store items they collect during gameplay.
Inspection System: A system that allows players to know items’ information.
Item System: A system that allows players to interact with items, such as using or combining them.
Notification System + Item System
Inventory System + Item System
Inspection System
All the system works together