And Then Jack Woke Up
Futuregames Game Project 3, June 2020
- Platform: PC
- Genre: Exploration
- Engine: Unity
- Team Size: 9 (3 Designers)
- Development: 7 weeks
Overview
And Then Jack Woke Up is a first-person exploration game, heavily driven by its narrative.
You play in the perspective of Jack, who is starting to become aware of his virtual existence in a progressively changing environment.
You play in the perspective of Jack, who is starting to become aware of his virtual existence in a progressively changing environment.
Level Design & Narrative Design
- Constructed the layouts of our environments to fit the requirements of the game's vision.
- Led the coordination with the artists and programmers to ensure measurements, style and functionality within the levels.
- Worked closely with other designers to set the foundation of our narrative design.
- Screenplayed and directed the dialogues together with our voice actor.
Goal
The game design's primary goal was to focus on environmental storytelling through mood and atmosphere.
Design Pillars
Team Collaboration & Pipeline
We started with defining the rules and foundation of our world, to easier grasp and start thinking about the gameplay and design within that space.
Workflow
I worked with our levels from whitebox to final quality, throughout the development I thoroughly communicated with the other designers as well as our artists and programmers to ensure measurements, style and functionality within the levels. As well as mitigating risks regarding delivering our levels on time in their intended state, through adaptive changes.
Level Design Goals
Telling a story to the player solely by the level's environment, and featuring a progressively changing world.
This was achieved by incorporating environments that reflected on Jack's personality and the world that he lives in.
This was achieved by incorporating environments that reflected on Jack's personality and the world that he lives in.
Concept by our 2D artist Karl Ehrnström, which helped us visualize the virtuality and environmental changes.
Level Overview
Since "deep environments" was our vision, we put emphasis into creating a sense of place through architecture. It was important that the player could differentiate each area
and have a world that is detailed enough to warrant a closer look, to reinforce the exploration aspect.
Each room is distinctive, which makes it easier for the player to build a mental map of the level.
Each room is distinctive, which makes it easier for the player to build a mental map of the level.
Levels & Objectives
Apartment Layout
Office Layout
Environmental Storytelling
From a narrative point of view, environmental storytelling helped us build rulesets of how the world works. We established that framework at the very beginning of the game to allow players to digest the story organically to prevent events from feeling too artificial.
Directing Players
With careful layout, lighting and visual cues, we created a natural "flow" to the player that guides them instictively. With our consistent visual language and form, the player could learn and progress intuitively through the level.
© 2024, Alan Ismail. All rights reserved.
