Carolane Bruneau

LEVEL SUMMARY

S1LV1, a reforestation robot unit, is dropped on a devastated land where it needs to plant new seedlings in appropriate seedbeds while avoiding the hazards of remaining fires and hungry crows, all while using it's different abilities and ingenuity to reach tough spots and find new seedling species to study.

STYLE: Platformer/Adventure/Semi-Open World

DESIGN PROCESS

REFERENCES & PREPRODUCTION

Project Reference Board

INSPIRATIONS

For this project, I was inspired by the recent episodes of forest fire happening all over the world in the recent years. I was also inspired by the games Stray & Endling and by the art of the artist Goro Fujita.

A BIT OF GEEKYNESS

I wanted to find an interesting name for this project. During my researches, I found the term Silviculture which is the name for "forest farming". I was inspired by it and decided that S1LV1 would be the name of the reforestation robot unit, thus the name of this project.

ASKING QUESTIONS

Something I like to do when preparing my ideas is to ask me some simple questions that I answer with concepts that will guide me through making my levels:

WHO◽WHEN◽WHERE◽WHAT◽WHY◽HOW

Here are the answers I gave myself to guide me:

WHO: A little reforestation robot (Seedbearer)

WHEN: Now/Near Future

WHERE: In a burnt forest

WHAT: Planting SEEDS TO REGROW THE FOREST

WHY: Because you want the life to return there

HOW: Exploring the forest, finding seed beds, avoid open spaces (crows can steal your seeds).

Additional References

Preliminary Layout Sketch

INGREDIENTS CREATED

SEEDBEDS◽DROP BOXES◽CROWS◽HAZARDS◽SPORES◽MOVABLE BOXES

SEEDBEDS : S1LV1 can only plant seeds in seedbeds.

DROP BOXES : Pickup seedlings in drop boxes. S1LV1 can request new one if needed.

CROWS : Crows can steal seeds. They follow a pattern S1LV1 can avoid.

HAZARDS : S1LV1 takes damage in fire and looses the seed if transporting any.

SPORES : S1LV1 can discover and collect "Spores" to get new vegetation species.

MOVABLE BOXES : S1LV1 can move yellow boxes to reach new heights.

ADJUSTEMENT TO STACK-O-BOT CHARACTER BLUEPRINT

CHARACTER MOVEMENT◽PRINTING MAXIMUM

CHARACTER MOVEMENT : When S1LV1 is transporting a seed, it moves slowly.

PRINTING MAXIMUM : S1LV1 can only print 3 copies of itself.

guiding the player

Here are some strategies I used to hint the player with visual cues.

🔥GRASS: I used the grass to indicate paths. I put grass patches strategically around seed beds, check points, spores and boxes. I wanted the grass to feel safe and hint the player to where things are.

🔥YELLOW COLOR: I use the color yellow as a contrast. Seed beds are lighten by a more yellowish light and interactions boxes are yellow. I also did a yellow overlay material to hint the player when they come closer to a possible interaction. Of course, the yellow is also present in fires although they are not friendly, but I think it still creates a good contrast and attract the eye so sometimes I can also guide the player toward an objective by strategically put hazards in their field of view to make them look in a certain direction.

🔥BLUE COLOR: The blue color helps the player to find the check points. I made a big column that you can see from far away. When the drop boxes are empty, they also get a blue overlay to indicate to the player that you can request new seeds from the entity that dropped S1LV1 there.

🔥GREEN COLOR: Only 2 things are green; Spores & Seedlings. That color represent a task done in the case of the seedling. It's associated with successful vegetation, therefore that's why I chose this color for the spores too as they are a collectible of new species.

EXEMPLE: I placed grass to guide the player to the spore location.

EXEMPLE: Yellow is used here to indicate that the boxes are ready to be interacted with. You can see also a yellow light that hints to where you could push the box.

NON LINEARITY

This level can be achieved in numerous ways. By the placement of things, I suggest to the player an order of achievement, but it is not mandatory to successful completion.

Challenges are implemented progressively to give the player time to learn.

1. On the first area, you only need to take care about the spores and the seedlings.

2. As you move to the next area, you are introduced to crows and higher platforms to reach. I also want to teach the player that spores can be hidden.

3. On the 3 others, you are introduced to the physic cubes that get you to even higher platforms.

I made myself a little guide to help me make platforms. The harder ones that needed help from the environment (either by using a rock or a yellow cube) where the highest.

TOOL USED

UNREAL ENGINE 5◽PUREREF ◽BLENDER ◽STACK-O-BOT

PLAY THIS PROJECT

SEE DETAILED BLOG POST