Castaway
Castaway is a third-person survival game. This game is purely explorative, based on gathering resources for survival as well as looking for a way out of the dense forest. The only fight the player is in, is with themselves. If the player decides to quit the game or restarts after dying, the game restarts. There will only be one chance given to the player to find a way out.
Storyline
On an hiking expedition gone wrong, you find yourselves waking up in a cabin, located in a dense forest. With no knowledge of the environment you are in, you must find a way out of this forest, so that you can re-unite with your team-mates. The only tool you have at your peril is a broken compass. Your main objective is to FOLLOW THE NORTH until you find
THE END.
Introductory video of the game
Game and level Design
While designing the game, i had to keep in mind the experience i was trying to provide to the user so that the main objective of this game: of feeling lost and abandoned in an unknown environment with limited resources and reliability on a single tool to find a way out to reunite with their team.
The purpose of this game is to provide the user the survival instinct, the feel of getting lost, and how to use a single tool to guide your own way out. It is also to provide the user with a key rule: you do not get second chances in life. You die, you RESTART.
Game Mechanics
The mechanics of the game were made in alignment with the requirements of the game. Ther were not a lot of tools that are provided to the player. A simple tool at the user's peril is a compass. Furthermore, to help with navigation, signs were set up at different places in the game. Food resources are set up at different places in the game to help the player's health bar to replenish to keep them from dying. This section of game mechanics will explain different aspects shown in game for navigation in the level and death conditions.
- Compass: There is a compass that is provided in the In-Game UI which always points towards the NORTH. The north of the game is actually THE END, which is the gateway on which, after entering, the end game visuals are shown. The compass, although it points to the north always, is a bit broken for more challenge. Sometimes, it does not point exactly towards THE END, so player has to find their way out of the wrong place where the compass guided them and find the correct way again.
Compass representation in the In-Game UI
- Signs: There are multiple signs placed at the sides of the routes which guides players towards different areas in the game, which helps the players for easier navigation towards THE END.
In-Game representation of the signs
- Pathways: There are defined pathways and signs, with locations written on the boards so that the player is always aware of the area they are present in.
Top-down visualization of the game, defining the pathways and waterways present in the game
Sandy routes defines the clear pathways that the user has to follow. This picture also depicts a cottage area in the game: Aura's Retreat
- Death conditions: There are only 2 death conditions in the game, which are as follows:
If the player falls in water at any given moment, they will die.
In-Game representation of the waters present
If the player's health bar runs out, which will keep running out if the user doesn't eat food to replenish their health, they will die.
The death panel which shows up when the player meets any death condition
- Food Resources: There are multiple food items present in the game, but they will ONLY be found inside of different areas, which means inside cottages, houses, etc.
Food items placed inside a cottage
Controls
The controls of the game are simple and kept to a minimum. They are as follows:
W - Move Forward
S - Move Backwards
A - Move Left
D - Move Right
SPACE - Jump
G - Grab Item
ESC - Escape menu
Mouse - Move camera
UI Design
The UI design of this game is divided into two parts: Main menu UI and In-Game UI.
- Main Menu UI: The main menu of this game uses a minimalistic and dark tone to the game, with dark yet soothing ambient music playing in the background with sounds of winds blowing.
Primary panel of the game. Player needs to press any key to continue.
Main menu UI of the game. From here, players can either play the game, or go into options for settings and controls, or quit.
- In Game UI: The in game UI is based on a minimalistic usage of HUD components as well, which includes a compass and health bar. Some prompts pops up when the user interacts with an item that can be grabbed, or at the start of the game which asks the players to go into the objectives panel to check the ultimate goal of the game.
In Game UI with HUD components displayed
Pause menu panel which pops after pressing ESC
The final video which is presented once the end-game condition is met
An important thing to mention is that i made this project to display my level, UI and game design skills. I also coded scripts in this game for behaviors i wanted to implement in-game, for example: compass, death conditions, audio control, UI and more. Most of the assets used in this game are third-party unity assets. I created some models in this game using Blender. The videos are edited, rendered and compiled by me using Unity's Cinemachine and DaVinci Resolve.
THANK YOU
