Ropes Adventure
Summary
Ropes' Adventure is a 3rd person Adventure platformer game where you play as the young red panda cub by the name of ropes..
You explore a world filled with old temple ruins in search for our grandfather who went missing while trying to fin the long lost monkey treasure.
Equipped with a grappling hook, you can Swing, jump and roll your way through through the temple as you solve puzzles, piece by piece to get one step closer to finding your Grandfather.
Platform: PC
Duration: 7 weeks
Engine: Unity 5
Team: Size: 4 Designers & 5 Artists
Project Role: Level Designer & Scripter
Responsibilities: Level Design, Level scripting, Menu & UI Design
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World Layout
The core idea of the game was to make a non-violent, exploration, adventure game with a cool mechanic. This mechanic was going to turn out to be a grappling hook. Swinging with the grappling hook turned out to be very satisfying on its own and with the combination of environmental puzzles and the collecting of puzzle pieces Ropes Adventure took shape.
The layout of the level was based around a central hub with connecting challange areas. This would allow for the reuse of existing areas making the scope of the project scalable throughout the development by the amount of challange areas that could be finished in the given time. The hub design also allows the players to complete the challange areas in whatever order that they like. .This gives players the freedom to explore and play around.
Tutorial
At the start of the game the player will be told the story through a short slideshow of descriptive images. These images depict the grandfather leaving for his expedition, dissapearing and then the red panda cub leaving home to find him.
After the slideshow the player will start in the tutorial area of the level. Here the player will be introduced to the basic game mechanics like jumping, double jumping, swinging with the grappling hook and pushing & pulling objects.
This is done by showing some very simple icons on the HUD displaying the controls of the neccesary action in the proximity of each corrosponding obstacle.
Introducing the Goal
When exiting the tutorial area the player will land next to the grandfather's hat and a golden puzzle piece. This triggers a cinematic event in which the hat flies down towards the monkey temple at the centre of the hub. There are 4 doors in the mouth of the monkey statue which have to be opened for the Panda Cub to continue his search (entering the mouth completes the demo). For the player to open the monkey statue doors he/she will have to collect 4 golden puzzle pieces and place them at the altar in front of the monkey head.
Navigational Challange
From here the player will have to make its way down to the hub through a vertical shaft, this introduces yet another way to use the grappling hook. In order to descend the shaft the player will have to lower him/herself with by paying out the rope it is also possible to climb by reteracting the rope. This is yet again explained by displaying the icons for the corrosponding actions.
Hub Area - Monkey Door Temple
At the center of the hub is the monkey head temple with the doors that the player needs to open to finish the demo. In front of the statue is the pedestal on where players will have to place the four puzzle pieces to open the doors. For each puzzle piece placed the next door will open. There are several different ways to go from here to reach the three different challange areas. This is where the exploration part of the game truly begins. The hubs open design gives the players the freedom ´to explore the world on their own.
There are collectables scattered throughout the game in the form of baby turtes. As turtles are collected they will return to their mother wandering on the beach close to the monkeyhead temple.
Challange Area 1
The first challange area requires the player to master the swinging to make it to where one of the puzzle pieces is located. The puzzle piece is hovering above a pillar that is rising through the roof a structure. In order for players to reach the puzzle piece they will have to solve a puzzle.
There are two pressure plates in the floor of the structure. When players steps on one of them the pillar will lower until halfway down. If they step off the pillar will rise again.
There are two stone blocks located around the structure. As shown in the tutorial players can push and pull them. In order for players to reach the puzzle piece, both of the pressure plates will need to have a block resting on them, The pillar in the middle will then lower to a level so that players can jump up onto the top of the pillar. While standing on top of the pillar both blocks will have to be removed raising the player to pick up the puzzle piece.
To get back to the hub players will have to take a different route back, once again they are going to have to solve a puzzle by pushing/pulling stone blocks onto pressureplates as shown on the right.
Challange Area 2
The second challange area is partially located in the central hub area and requires players to use the different mechanics of the grappling hook to get to the third puzzle peace.
The puzzle piece itself is located at a balcony overlooking the central hub area. In order for players to reach it they are going to have to navigate through the ruins to the water reservoir.
From there players will have to climb up the circular shaft by swinging between different grappling points and pull him/herself up. Once players has reaced the puzzle piece he/she can easily return to the monkey temple by using a zip line.
Navigational Challange 2
In order to get to the last challange area the player will have to solve a puzzle that is on time. On a little island located in the middle of the water south of the monkey temple there is a pressure plate. Not far from the pressure plate there is a stone block which the player will have to find.
Across from the pressure plate there is a pillar on the beach with a grappling point on it. When the pressure plate is depresssed the pillar across from it will race upwards into the air until reaching its final position. When fully raised the grappling point will be next to a ledge that continue towards the next challange.
The player is going to have to have put the stone block on the pressure plate and then run and attach the grappling hook to the pillar before it is to far up in the air to reach. This is a bit tricky and might require a few attempts to succeed but there is a special trick to it if the player is smart.
The trick is to attach the rope to the block and the cross over to the other side and then pull the block onto the pressure plate from the other side. The player can then with ease attach him/herself to the pilllar.
In the second part there is yet again a pressure plate and stone block but this time its a regular lift and no time pressure
(Fort this navigational challange I reused the script from the first challange area with some slight modifications).
Challange Area 3
The last challange area is also the largest with the most challanges. After passing the previous navigational challange the player there is a small passage leading to a small open canyon. On the top of the other side of the canyon there is a gateway. In order for players to cross the canyon they will have to swing from point to point making their way up to the other side.
When entering the gateway there is only one way to go and that is straight forward. There is however another opening to the left at the top of a broken staircase. This opening is inaccessable from below but will later be the exit on the way back.
On the other side of the gateway there is a body of water. From here players can see a house on the other side and a temple higher up the cliffs.
To only way to cross is to use a swing node towards the house. Using the swing node players will land on a ledge just below the cliff the house is standing on. On this ledge there is a stone block that is going to have to be pushed towards the wall in order to be able to jump up to the cliff.
To get to the temple further up the cliffs the player is going to have to cross the water yet again. There are turtles in the water to jump on but the water is too low to get up on the other side. In front of the house is a pressure plate, when the player steps on it the water rises but when stepping of it lowers to its former position. The stone block from earlier can not be lifted so the player is going to have to explore to find the solution.
Inside the house there is a hole in the roof and a hook point for the grappling hook above it. Next to the house in level with the house's roof is another ledge with a stone block on it. (This can also be seen from the ground.)
After jumping from the roof to the ledge players are able to push the stone block down, move it onto the pressure plate and then jump across on the turtles.
After crossing the water, players enter an outer courtyard with a pond in the middle. It is possible to cross by jumping on the turtles in the water or at the sides where there is a smaller gap between the two sides.
Once inside the actual temple there is a pillar in the middle courtyard holding the final puzzle piece. The temple is a two story building and the pillar reaches about one and a half story. The puzzle piece is encaged behind bars in at the top of the pillar. There are two pressure plates in the floor that both have too be depressed foor the pillar to lower and the cage to open. Activating only one pressure plate will only lower the pillar.
The stone blocks that need to be used are both hidden on the second floor of the temple.
On the way back players can swing back to the gateway and use the other doorway that could be seen when entering the area from the other side earlier. Covering the doorway are some planks that need to be smashed before going through
Once on the other side of the gateway players can easily swing back on swing nodes that were previously unaccessable from the other direction.
Once back at the hub there is a zipline leading down from the cliff to the monkey temple allowing for fast way back.
SITEMAP
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