Diluvium

Group Project | Story Adventure Game

The Project

Diluvium is a narrative environmental puzzle game set in a post-apocalyptic utopian future where the sea level has risen dramatically. During the game, it’s up to the main character Dwyn to clear the corruption that is affecting the world’s technology. The player does this by finding and clearing a puzzle.

During this project, I worked together with three game artists and two game developers to create the gameplay loop and write the story.

The Process

My focus during the project was the puzzle/level design of the final puzzle. During the brainstorm sessions, the idea arose of making a mirror puzzle where the player had to reflect a light beam onto a certain point.

I iterated on this puzzle idea while making the second prototype and for the final layout I made multiple drawings to communicate my vision to the team.

In the final design I combined the laser mechanic with the backpack mechanic to create a puzzle with 3 different phases.

Two sketches depicting the level layout for the laser puzzle room.

Diluvium Prototype 1

In the first prototype that I made for Diluvium I wanted to test the backpack mechanic that had come up in one of the team’s brainstorm sessions. The main idea was that the player had a backpack that they could disconnect from their back. They could then control it separately from the main character. However, only when the backpack was on the player’s back could they double jump. For this prototype I made a quick puzzle where the player has to jump up the pillars with the backpack and then detach it, using it to press a button to reveal the final goal.

Diluvium Prototype 2

The second prototype has many mechanics that the final version also has. In this prototype we wanted to test how the story guided the player when it came to navigation and the puzzle. In this prototype we also used an early version of the final character control so we could playtest that. Dialogue was also implemented to test its connection with the puzzle.

This prototype features a puzzle in which the player has to reflect a laser onto a block using mirrors. Useful feedback from this early version of the final puzzle made iteration a lot easier.

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