WARP CYCLE (2017)
The goal of this prototype was to develop a mechanic that the player could use to manipulate the environment; therefore, I created a means of teleportation where the player could switch into an alternative world in order to reach the end.
The idea initially sprang from a game called "Titanfall 2" by Respawn Entertainment; specifically the level called “Effects and cause”. The player is able to manipulate time and travel between two dimensions (past and present), the idea behind this level is to block certain paths and objects in one dimension, forcing players to swap to the other to get around them. I wanted to create a similar mechanic which would force players to switch between dimensions in order to progress, however unlike Titanfall, the prototype solely focuses on the platforming aspect.
Using a pen/paper prototype, I began implementing the level in Unity 3D. My first hurdle was to devise a plan to accommodate a switch between both worlds. I finally settled with a teleportation mechanic which would relocate a player if they right-clicked their mouse button on a particular floor panel; the panels would be present in both worlds; however each world would be visually different (different theme) and contain different styles of floor panel. Making each dimension different was imperative in creating a believable experience for the player, I also added little snippets of humor in one of them to add some diversity amoung the two.
Platform: PC
Genre: First Person, Platformer
Engine: Unity
Time: 2 weeks
Click again once the game loads
Dimension 1
The first dimension was developed as the main world, the player starts here and respawns in this world if they fall. I wanted to take a cyberpunk approach in creating a dark interior that had some low light illumination to bring out the mysterious sci-fi theme. Once the player begins to move, they will notice that one of the tiles straight ahead has an aura or particle system attached to it. Having warm colours associated with the particle system would incentivize players in approaching it; once they do there will be a prompt on the bottom of the screen notifying them that you can teleport to another dimension if the right mouse button is pressed. Later down the line, the puzzles will begin to become more challenging; forcing players to swap dimensions while performing a jump action to land safely on an object in the other dimension. The player may notice that some tiles are highlighted red, this is to aid them that in this world they do not exist; however in the other they do!
Dimension 2
A simple theme with primitive objects, a high contrast between the previous dimension. There are some extra coloured cubes to facilitate some more variety between the worlds. The most important cube to look out for is the orange cube, which behaves as the teleportation cube. The red cube is a dangerous cube, it must be avoided at all costs! Whilst the blue cube is helper cube, with some added humor. There will be some segments where the player can accomplish quite a lot before teleporting back; the idea behind this was to add more versatility and exploration, not forcing the player through the level I intended it to the played.
dimensions side by side
Both dimension are actually together in the same scene; whenever the player teleport's to another world, in reality their avatars transform is being offset by a large distance. I'd like to thank Dylan Abela for such a helpful tip, initially I was working with two separate scenes which was leading to some complications. Optimization in such as scene was very important, especially with two dimensions (levels) in one scene; It is the reason why the second dimension has such simple primitive shapes in an open environment, reducing the cost of having a lot of assets and light sources. The diagram on the left is flooded with blue and cyan artifacts; these are indicators of the teleportation pads from both worlds (blue = dimension 1, cyan = dimension 2)
