GZJ Game Design
Dimensions
ROLE Designer
DESCRIPTION
Dimensions is a platform jumping game that runs on PC. Players could use three different dimensions to solve the puzzles in the game world . One dimension, two dimensions and three dimensions correspond to horizontal scroll game, top-down game and Third-Personal game respectively. As the dimensions switch, it's not just the perspective of the game that changes, the actual game world transformed as well. The player needs to understand the rules of the different dimensions in order to find a way to achieve the terminus.
Date
2022/6
Platform
PC
CONCEPT
Dimensions are initially inspired by a level in What Remains of Edith Finch. In that level, the protagonist,Lewis, is a fish cannery worker who loves video games. The player needs to use the mouse to control his hand to cut the fish on the table, while using the keyboard to control the game in his mind.
In the beginning, the game was a retro RPG with a look-down Angle. As the player continues to control the character in the game, the game view gradually becomes a 45-degree, DIABLO-like, view. Then the point of view gradually moves behind the character, and the game becomes a third-personal over-the-shoulder view. Finally, the characters disappear from view and the game becomes a first-personal view.
After playing this level, I am aware that the rich gameplay implied by switching perspectives has not been fully explored. In this narrative level, the player simply follows a linear flow and experiences changes in perspectives. What if players are given the freedom to change their perspective? What would a puzzle design with perspective switching as the core mechanic look like? These questions motivated me to set out to create DIMENSIONS.
1D----TRADITIONAL
MECHANISM
To better explain the mechanics of the game, I'll use a single keyword to summarize the characteristics of each dimension and then expand on that.
2D----FLAT
3D----HOLLOW
1D----TRADITIONAL
The one-dimensional space of the scrolling gameplay is not that different from the traditional gameplay of this type of game, so it's the default dimension I want to give the player. That said, players are encouraged to go forward in this dimension. Only when they encounter a problem that cannot be solved in this dimension do they switch perspectives. But it's worth noting that in the one-dimensional world of the game, what you see is what you see. It sounds like a nonsense, but in other horizontal games, players might be able to walk through tunnels which can't be shown in the picture. But in this game, because the player can't see the tunnel in a one-dimensional view, it's impossible to traverse the hollowed-out obstacles.
But one dimension is not completely useless. There are objects in the game like bridges and ships that only have collision volumes in one dimension. Because in the perspective of other dimensions, they are just lines.
In the second level, the player cannot get down to the bottom to get the key in both 2D and 3D space, so the player must take advantage of the overlapping view of the side platform in 1D space to get the key and key.
2D----FLAT
The greatest thing about two dimensions is that you can ignore the physical concept of height.Therefore, when the player encounters a platform beyond the reach of the jump height, he/she can try the two-dimensional perspective
3D----HOLLOW
As I mentioned before, there are no tunnels in one dimension that the player can't see. Therefore, when the player is blocked by an obstacle, he needs to change to three dimensions. In most cases, walls that are solid in one dimension are hollowed out in three dimensions.Because of this, the action of opening a door with a key can only be performed in three dimensions, because locks and doors can't be seen in the other dimensions, so they don't exist outside of three dimensions.
LEVEL DESIGN
This is the first draft I drew when I came up with the idea. Each column is the same terrain, and each row corresponds to a dimension. One dimension represents linear motion, and the movement pattern of the player in a horizontal scrolling game corresponds to this principle. Two dimensions represents planar motion. In fact, there are many game types that can express this kind of motion in a broad sense. However, after reflection, I find that only a strict vertical perspective can directly reflect the characteristics of two-dimensional space. Motion in three dimensions is best understood, and both first - and third-personal views show this pattern well. I ended up with a third person perspective because I wanted the player to be able to see the objects they were manipulating in each dimension, which would help them better understand the relationship between the dimensions.
I then made the first level of the game in Maya to find out if there was any logical error in this idea. Fortunately, at least in modeling software, the switching of the three dimensions seems reasonable.
After that, I made a prototype of the rest three levels and started trying to implement my idea in Unity.
I decided to make three puzzle sets for each level in Unity to correspond to the three dimensions. Although the player controls only one ball, the other two balls also move in sync with the player's ball on their respective sets. This way, when the player switches dimensions, each ball can appear in the corresponding position.
MAKING
While I wanted the player to feel like they were playing on a same level, in the actual production there were three completely different maps based on different dimensions. For this reason, consistent camera motion should not be used for dimensional transitions, or the player will find themselves manipulating three characters at once instead of just one. That's why I used a split screen to switch dimensions.
The first level is the introductory level, which helps the player quickly learn the mechanics of the game. The second level is a further combination of elements found in the first level to familiarize the player with the logic of the game. Levels 3 and 4 add more difficult, dynamic puzzles. These puzzles not only require the player to understand the game mechanics, but also test the player's actions.
After completing these ideas, I determined the rough script framework.
Synchronizing the position of the ball between dimensions was always my biggest challenge during production. My solution is to use the SetActive function to control the appearance of the air wall and the transfer wall, and to synchronize the position of the ball by collision detection.
For the art, I took the whole style of neon wrap, the ball itself is also made of light-emitting material. However, in the final testing phase, I found that the visual feedback of the ball jumping in two-dimensional space was too weak. In other words, the player can hardly tell if the ball is off the ground. So I added a tail effect to the jumping ball. This method is simple, but it solves the above problem effectively.
FUTURE
While the idea that levels change as the player's perspective changes can be a core mechanic in an indie game, it can also be used as a puzzle element in a larger commercial game.For example, in some levels of the game Super Mario: Odyssey, we see a design where the player has to travel through one dimension to reach places that three dimensions cannot.
In the DIMENSIONS demo, I focused on the puzzle elements that appear in front of the player. But I think there's a lot more room for horizontal, visually overlapping levels (just like the design of the pickup key in the second level I have just mentioned) in future iterations. In surrealist open world games, this design can be more widely used.
