Unreal Project - Showcase
Introduction
Lab:Rat (working title) is a first person puzzle game where you find yourself in a room as a test subject who woke up in a mysterious building that needs to find a button to open a door that will lead you out of the room you found yourself in. You need to find your way out and maybe unwrap whatbuilding you found yourself locked in and who is testing you and for what purpose.
The game is inspired by Valve titles, mostly Portal(2007) and aesthetically Half-Life(1998). The goal with this project is to build interesting levels and simple but fun and challenging puzzles for the players to solve. They shouldn't be very frustrating and the player should feel a sense of accomplishment when solving them.
First sketch of the map I imagined early on. The final map would end up very similar in the engine. I wanted it to be linjear. When the player enters theroom they should be able to directly gather some if not all information needed for theplayer to solve the puzzle. It should be easy to move in, easy to read and notbe cluttered with many things. It should be interesting to add mystery. It can have different section that should be broken up by crawlspaces or staircases. Ifeel like another door could be misleading as there should be 2 doors in eachroom. The entrance and the exit. With exception to the final room of this level where the multiple doors works as entrances to specific puzzles for that area.
The Rooms
Room 1 - Tutorial Room
The player starts ina room with a door at the end of it, no windows and it is filled with boxes,tables, and random smaller debris. In the middle there’s a button that will unlockthe door. Here the player can experiment a bit before they proceed to the nextroom if they so choose, they can read the controlls on a whiteboard in the room. The button teaches them that all the buttons do will beopening doors. The miscellaneous(miscs) things around them can be broken byshooting them, moved and lifted. If they choose to interact with the thingsthey will learn this here, but there will be more opportunities to learn thisas the level goes on.
Room 2 - Crawlspace
Here more miscsthings will be spread around. Again a door at the end of the room. This timethe player can see also a glass pane that separates the current room withanother room to the left side. But no door leading in there can be seen. Themiscs will be laid out so the player should be inclined to move around them andsee if they can find something. At one spot there will be a vent that theplayer can crawl into that will lead to the room on the left hand side. Inthere, a button will be found that will unlock the door at the end of the room.Here the players will be introduced to vents and if they didn’t explore themiscs in the first room, they will learn about that here.
Room 3 - Broken Stairs
In this room the doorhas moved position to be on the left hand side, right in front of the playerthere will be a window higher up that is broken and a staircase. A bit of thestaircase is broken so the player will have to find a way up there. Getting up there, a button on the wall can be pressed to open the door. The player also have achoice here. They can jump out the window to get down faster or, they can goback down the staircase. This room introduces jumping to the player, it alsointroduces a new type of puzzle.
Originally in this room, I had planned on having a "simon says" type puzzle. The button on the room above would be off. Looking towards the titled roof there would be 3 or 4 different colored lights. Below the glass a panel with a "start" button and then 3 or 4 similary colored buttons. Pressing start would begin the simon says puzzle and the player would have to play 3 rounds of simon says. Failing would reset the game back to round 1. Getting it right would activate the master button to the door and the player has cleared the room.
Room 4 - Turret
Walking in here theplayer will be introduced to a large room with a hole in the floor, and at thecentre of the ceiling there’s a turret. A large metal box will be close for theplayer to have time to run and hide behind from the turret. Shooting the turretwill make it fall and create a bridge for the player to walk over the hole. Atthe end of the room there’s a vent on the left hand side. In there, the buttonto open the door will be found. Thisroom introduces hazards in form of holes and turrets.
Originally I had the idea of also introducing secrets here. If the player has a keen eye when first entering the room they will see another vent. In there a secret token could've been found. Later on I thought it could be part of the puzzle. Destroying the turret would expose the other vent and inside there, the plank to get over the hole lies. The player would have to lift the plank and carry it out of the vent and then place it over the hole. To ensure that the player cannot fail, let's say if they would make the plank fall all the way to the bottom of the hole so they cannot pick it up anymore. There could be a smaller vent inside the plank room that would lead to the other side.
Room 5 - The Doors
A large room with 5doors. 3 on the left hand side.
2 on the right with a fountain in the middle, it isn’t working but there’s water in it still.
These rooms has buttons that all need to be pressed in order to open the main exit. These rooms will blend in all the different puzzles for the player so they need to solve it. One of the rooms will introduce buttons that can be activated by shooting them. Dying in one of the rooms will only reset the button from said room. Not the previously completed buttons.
Originally there was supposed to be a screen in the large room showing them the buttons that they have already pressed down. It was changed to just be a light above the door of the button pressed.
The Puzzle Rooms
Puzzle Room A
This room is mostly a simple parkour course. Jumping on platforms, crouching to get through andneeding to move stuff that is in the way.
Originally I would have put shootable obstacles as well and some things that could be used for the players advantage to get through and thethings in this room that would be necessary for the player tocomplete the room cannot be accidentally destroyed or misplaced. They would bepositioned in a way that they will always serve the correct purpose.
Puzzle Room B
This room is where a shootable button will appear. There’s a pit in the room with someareas where there still is floor. The player will have to jump between them until they reach a whole platform halfway through the room. A button is hidden in the room that has to be shot. Doing so will spawn a plank that the player can use to reach the button at the end.
Originally I wanted some of the areas to not be reached by the player. More buttons would be found and they will be out of reach for the player. If theplayer figures out that they can shoot them, doing so will give them a platformthat enables them to jump on the fixed floor area that was previouslyunreachable. It is on a time limit, so if the player fails to jump across intime, they will fall and die, sadly resetting the progress of that room only.At the end of the room the master button is held. Pressing it will complete thenext step of the larger puzzle but also keep the platforms so the playerdoesn’t have to do a timed jump back as well. I was however hesitant to have a time limit.
Puzzle Room C
This room will beanother parkour section. This time with shootable buttons. Much like Door B,the buttons will activate a way for the player to move forward. Spawning a box on top of the hazardous pillars. The platforms are narrow so the players need to be careful not to fall and having to restart the room. By the end there's a vent that the player can use to walk in, taking them back to the mainroom letting them fall into the fountain in the middle.
Originally in this room, there would be certain jumping or crawling sections with something in the way. Shooting the hanging buttons will open it up for aspecific time and then return to be in the way.
Ventilation Shaft
Puzzle Room D
This room is rather simple, it is the same set up as the turret room.
Originally this room would be amaze section. Coming to the middle of the maze there would've been a turret that theplayer needs to destroy. In the area, boxes for cover will be placed. A vent ina corner and a pillar in the middle. Ending the turrets life will blow it upand a button will appear in the middle. Pressing it will complete the puzzlefor that room. The player then needs to find the vent and crawling through itwill lead them to a similar exit as the one in Door C.
Puzzle Room E
The maze got moved here, it is simple and also has a little secret.
Originally this room would feature a crawling section. The player would crawl around a space with some light parkouringbut mostly crawling. A room for taking it slow, testing the players patience. Willalso be filled with destructible and movable objects. Pressing the button inthe end will complete the puzzle. The player will have to crawl the same wayback.
Overview Map
