Map of each region:
1. Area’s Identity
Londinium
- Industrial City dealing with an aging water system, highlighted through the use of rusting pipes and industrial infrastructure involved in the puzzles.
Nefarun
- A desert region struggling with desertification and water management. This can be seen in the puzzles which are directed to sorting these issues.
Bayonara
- Fishing town struggling with water pollution and constant droughts. Levels revolve around utilising a fishing rod to solve these issues.
Andemara
- Icy mountain range is struggling with increasing temperatures. Due to warming temperatures the glacier is going to melt. Using a snow gun the player needs to put out all fires in the levels.
2. Front-On View
For the front-on level design:
Londinium
- Within this level shown below the player must maneuver down to the button and within a set time reach the other side and turn the water off. They have to avoid enemies whilst saving their water usage for the puzzle.
- Within this level to reflect the city infrastructure the whole design revolves around pipes and metal platforms.
- Enemies patrol random platforms, players must think strategically to complete this level in the time limit.
Nefarun
- In this level shown below, the player has to simply put the fires out as quickly as possible. This is achieved through using the corresponding to get to the fires. This is also done whilst avoiding enemies
- The theme of this level with burning consoles is meant to reflect the mismanagement of this region’s water systems.
- The player must not waste their water as there are up to 4 fires they need to put out in this level.
Bayonara
- Within this level the player has to traverse across the wooden platforms and collect the fishing rods whilst their platform (the boat) is constantly moving to the other side of the screen
- By using the wooden boat and wooden plank it relates back to the regions designs
- Whilst completing this enemies can be dotted on random platforms so the player has to plan their route before jumping off the boat
Andemara
- Set in an icy cave, this level requires the player to evade falling icicles and collect the snowballs before traversing to the exit
- By having the falling icicles i have reinforced the regions crisis of rising temperatures
- This level does not have any enemies patrolling but still requires the players attention to avoid the falling objects
3. Bird’s-Eye View
Londinium
- This bird’s eye level requires the player to repair both the flow of the water by turning the pipes in the correct position and the pipes that have cracks in them. The level below shows all the game features that the player needs to interact with, such as the ladders, pipes, cracks and the water meter
Nefarun
- This puzzle as shown below shows an incoming sandstorm that is killing the trees and increasing desertification. It is the players job to continue to avoid an onslaught of enemies whilst planting as many tree seeds as possible to push back the storm.
Bayonara
- This level focuses back on solving pollution, as such the player controls a little wooden boat and must avoid the enemies whilst fishing out any objects in front the river.
Andemara
- To represent rising temperatures in this level the player must traverse a maze whilst finding the fires and extinguishing them before being able to complete the level.
5. Player Experience
Through all the design choices it will help to immerse the player into the crisis. It helps to reinforce the essential experience I wanted the player to experience of urgency and responsibility. The most notable features that reinforce this experience are the time countdowns, the pollution filled waters and the melting glaciers.
I have created some prototypes that expand on these level designs. These can be found in the Animations & Prototypes section or click the links here: