Setting & Lore

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Tom Flint and the temple of Zulkan is a physics-driven puzzle adventure game designed by a group of students as our final project for our studies. The adventure takes place in Zulkan, an old temple from a civilization long-gone transformed by the intrusions of adventurers. Our hero chases his sister who was lost in an expedition that traveled to the temple to salvage it`s precious ressources.

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Our hero has no way to defend itself against the dangers of Zulkan except for his bow. However, the bow has the special power to shoot magnetic arrows wich can either attract or repulse magnetic items.  You use the arrows in order to solve puzzles which allow you to progress forward in the temple as well as some small platforming sequences. 

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Responsabilities in our team

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In this project, my main tasks was scripting the game mechanics and game design as well as level design of the final area. I also helped with the level art of the final area. The project was made in Unity and my modeling was done in Maya. 

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Level design intentions

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For the final area, I wanted it to feel more open as the rest of our game took mostly place in corridors so I designed a puzzle room based around our system of emitters which is a special plate triggered by having the corresponding cube land on it with the help of your magnetic arrows. It will then trigger to open doors granting the player access to areas that used to be blocked off. 

 

In order to ease the player into this mechanic, I start my level with the player in a corridor where the only way to move forward is to bring a cube onto an emitter near a door barred with steel poles. That way they understand quickly the goal for the second part of this area. 

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I integrated a ''basement'' to this area to have the player feel like they are exploring the depths of the temple just before they make their way to the final treasure room of our game. I also placed a few breakable walls around the level, then to give some punch to the pacing I placed some platforming sequences were you navigate on metal platforms driven around by the magnetic arrows.

 

I put our special poison FX combined with a water shader to use to add poisonous areas around the level giving the rooms a special feel and heightening the sense of danger of the player. Finally, after sucessfully triggering the emitters, the player can make their way to a final simple puzzle in a room dominated by large dominant statues to discover the final treasure as well as the diary of their lost sister. 

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Challenges encountered & iteration process

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Through iterations and playtesting sequences, I simplified a bit the puzzles and lowered the number of emitters required to move forward to the final area from three to two to make the difficulty of the level more aligned with the rest of the game as well as our vision of the project. 

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Awards

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Our project was presented to a jury at the end of the year (College Inter Dec 2017-2018) composed of  6 professionals from the gaming industry and won the award of student project of the year in the video games program out of three games presented.

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Art Team:

Bernard Vezina, Charles Perron, Wilbert Georges, Cedrick Desjardins, Anis Oualha, Iryna Moroz, Audran Loyrion, Carlos JB, Oscar Eduardo Cruz Lara

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Design Team:

Daniel Bellemare, Vincent Beauchemin, Jessica Guay, Katia Provost, Samuel Guilbault, Ludovyk Douville, Jerome Paupe, Joris Loyrion 

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