Where's my cheese? - Overview 

Genre: Cozy puzzle | Gameplay: Single-player, exploration, stealth and collection | Setting: Low-poly House

Role: Solo Dev | Duration: 10 weeks | Personal work

Skills: Unity | C# Scripting | System Design | UI/UX design | Level design 

Created initially as a sixth form project in a 2 week time frame, this project was refurbished withing 2 months as a solo developer to show off what I've learnt while also re-learning Unity and C# scripting

Responsibilities:

  • Level Design: Detailed creation of the game environment and map layout to enhance the player experience.
  • Mechanics: Development and implementation of game mechanics, including tunnels and enemy behavior.
  • User Interface (UI): Design and integration of in-game UI elements that fit into a same theme of cheese.
  • Script Creation: Extensive use and re-learning of C# code for game logic and interaction

System work examples - Diagrams

Player movement/world interaction

  • Player moves using WASD, W & S for back and forth, A & D to turn; this also turns camera attached to the player
  • Same applies to mobile controls with touchscreen joystick
  • If player collides with a wall, players will slide across, allowing smoother movement
  • If a wall comes between player and camera, the wall texture will change to create a hole in the wall to avoid obstruction

Enemy behavior

  • Enemy loops between designated points on map
  • Enemy has a field of view (FOV) visualized with a red cone
  • If player enters FOV, enemy will derail from set pathing to chase player
  • If enemy collides with player, player is caught and loses 1 life
  • If player is caught OR player stays outside enemy FOV for over 2 seconds, enemy will return to nearest pathing point 

Tunnels

  • Player will enter tunnel hole if close enough
  • Players can exit tunnels by moving forwards
  • Players are undetectable and un-cactchable inside tunnels
  • If player pressed Space bar, player will travel to another tunnel entrance connected to each other
    • Button appearing on screen can be tapped on mobile version

Cheese collection & Win/lose condition

  • Exit is blocked at start
  • Exit will unlock when player collects all 3 cheeses
  • Player collects cheese my colliding with it
  • When cheese collected, player obtains speed boost for 5 seconds

Timer

  • Timer begins once the level loads
  • If player loses 1 life, 10 seconds added to timer
  • If player loses all 3 lives, level is reset along with timer
  • When player exits level, timer for that level is stopped
  • When all levels passed, times of all levels are added up to give final time

Reflection notes

Player:

Player contyrols were kept simple to allow player a single handed gameplay for more acessibility. For smoother movement a wall slide code was added to avoid players becoming stuck whilst getting chased. One of the bigger changes of the original game was adding a view hole for better visibility when the camera goes behind a wall or anyrhing that may block the player character from the view. The tail of the mouse was given a small wiggle physics for my own fun and satisfaction

Enemies:

Key elements in the development of the enemies was balancing, sound design and ui features. Enemy behaviour was kept simple and dificulty increased as a set rate, only less so for the final level were there were more enemies to ensure proper balance between levels. All enemies have a set walking sound as well as an alert sound that plays on loop while the player is detected. When player is detected, players get an exclamation mark on ther head to show they are spotted, which goes away once they run away.

Tunnels:

Initially, this feature was debated wether it was necessary or not. With some quick testing it became clear that it would be a cruicial mechanic for a more flexible experience. It was however, one of the buggiest mechanics, breaking every time the game was tested and having to adjust code constantly. Through trial and error I learnt whatr was causing the issue and fixed it for good. 

Cheese and exit:

Both cheese and exits atre yellow to keep all player objective the same color. For better visualization, some movement and vfx was added to the cheese, and a light was added to the exit so player better understand when the exit is unlocked

Timer:

The timer is a key mechanic in the replayability of the game, as it motivates players to try again to get a faster time. The time going up also helps in allowing players only interested in exploring to not feel preasure into having to rush through each level. This allows the game to apeal to a wider range of player profiles

 

Level design - Mapping & In-engine view

Red: Enemy | Yellow: Cheese | Mouse: Player | Blue: Tunnel entrance | Green: Exit

Level 1: Kitchen

Level 2: Hallway

Level 3: Attic

Reflection notes

Originally only the firsty level was developed, but levels 2 and 3 were drawn out before but discarded due to time constraints.

Placement of cheeses and tunnels were planned strategically so that the cheeses subtly displayed the pathing players should take. While tunnels were alighed to the cheeses for a more smooth pathing for players (More detail on GDD)

Level 1 - Kitchen:

Having been mapped out already, the original map was used as a blockout for the revamped map. A pantry was added as a safe section for players to get acustomed to the controls. 

Level 2 - Hallway:

This level added a bit more challenge as players would have to backtrace their steps in order to reach the exit, with little room to avoid the cat enemy other than the tunels provided

Level 3 - Attic:

The hardest of the levels, many testers struggled with this level, so boxes with tunnel entrances were added to provide players with safe areas whist still maintaining the hostile energy intended for the "creepy" attic. 

UI work examples - Initial and final designs

Player HUD

Pause/Options menu

Game start and end screens

World UI

Reflection notes

Ui is based by initial designs of old project. To imrpove on the original designs I used charquiterie boards as inspiration for menus to have a more apealing style to the UI style. 

Additionally, I added simple labels with objectives and controls on boxes placed on the first level to ahve some inmersive guidance at the start of the game. This proved effective during testing for all age rages. All testers were able to easily understand all the assets on the screen such as lives and the cheeses collected

Previous version v/s New version

Reflection notes

With a 3 year time of experience and a more flexible time frame, the differences between the version of the game are striking. 

Initially, I was given specific mechanics that had to be included for the project; this included a timer, collectable items, life system, enemies and an exit. With those filters I came up with this game and in 2 weeks I managed to obtain a distinction on thsi project.

After my studies I decided to remake this project with my new knowlegde to see how much I had improved. I added features and levels I had originally wanted to add but had no time. I also refined details for smoother gameplay such as camera logic and the tunnel feature. 

Both games side by side are strikingly different, and I'm proud of how far ive been able to come from when I was younger.