Enlightenment
Playing a dangerous game.
About the projectEnlightenment is a survival horror game in which you take the roll of a husband who made a deal with an unknown force in an attempt to save his dying wife. Trapped in a surreal world within a coma, the player must progress through a twisted version of the hospital and fight his way back to his wife while traveling through familiar places which tell the backstory of Enlightenment. All while your daughter leads the way and acts as your guiding light.
The game uses low poly assets as well as the PSX Shader Kit by Valerie Moza to recreate the look and feel of old Playstation 1 titles like Silent Hill.
Player must avoid the monsters hidden within the shadows and solve puzzles to reach their goal. Exploring the environment gives further inside to the games backstory and is vital to reaching the games true ending.
„Just a simple card game huh?“
My Contribution
For Enlightenment my role was to create the games story, design the gameplay and levels as well as coding said gameplay and systems. This includes all player interactions with the world such as the games puzzles as well as enemy AI behaviour.
In addition to that I also assumed the role of the visionkeeper assuring that the game achieves the desired PS1 artstyle and horror atmosphere.
Interacting with the world.
The Puzzles
Designing the gameplay
One of the main gameplay elements of Enlightenment are the puzzles which are not only supposed to challenge the players way of thinking but are also used as an obstacle while players are avoiding the main threat of the game, the doctor. Hints around the level as well as dialogue from the protagonist are used to guide the player towards their objective, without the need of questmarkers. Additionally, lights around the levels are used to draw the attention of the player, leading them to points of interest in a natural way.
Keeping track
With the threat of an enemy present which can reset your progress when caught, Enlightenment needed a robust save system which remembers all the steps you have already taken during your journey. Important items, like keycards or doors, need to persistent even after death or shutting down the game, which is why a save system was created, even though Enlightenment only represents a small demo. With this system, the game can be opened and closed at any given moment without losing any progress. In addition to that, resetting your savefile is possible using a button in the main menu, allowing you to easily replay the game.
While security isn’t necessarily a concern for singleplayer games, the savesystem in Enlightenment was still written in an encoded way, preventing players from tampering with the savefiles.
Escaping your nightmare.
Interacting with your enemy
How the enemy works
The Enemy in Enlightenment uses predetermined paths which allows level designers to carefully build encounters which can be used to build the atmosphere and challenge that the game needs without running into unintended behavior. This makes the enemy movement feel both predictable and realistic, adding to the immersion needed for a horror game. The path that the enemy takes is also randomly chosen which provides a changing yet predictable gameplay challenge.
Target acquisition of the enemy is based on line of sights to the player which allows them to use cover in an intuitive and natural way. Sounds and different animations are also used to inform the player about the current state of the enemy, making it easy to tell whether or not the enemy was alerted.
Escaping the enemy
As described above, enemy behavior is based on line of sight to the player. This means that players can use cover to get out of combat or stay out of sight. In addition to that, players can also use objects within the environment in order to hide from the enemy. Open wardrobes or tables can be interacted with to hide within or bellow them, providing a safe place for the player. However the enemy in Enlightenment can not be easily fooled and entering a wardrobe within line of sight does not prevent the enemy from finding the player. This way players are still forced to make smart decisions in order to avoid getting caught.
The Levels.
Forrest
The Forrest Level in Enlightenment is the first level of the game. It introduces the player to the basic principals of the game such as the stealth mechanics and puzzles as well as the the collectables scattered around the world of Enlightenment.
The Level uses a mix of distant point of interests and lighting to guide the player to the correct way and solution without requiring any additional information. Atmosphere is created by a thick fog and dark lighting which limits the player’s visible range. Combined with roaming enemies, players need to be careful at every step in order to avoid getting caught.
Hospital
The Hospital in Enlightenment has multiple purposes and acts as both a level as well as a hub to access different levels of the game. The main goal is to ascend within the building by using the elevator located on each floor of the building and avoiding the enemies present.
The level found within the demo of Enlightenment features multiple puzzles which expects the player to examine the world around them and use hints hidden inside the rooms of the level to solve the puzzles at hand. Doors need to be opened using keycards which are scattered around the level. Additionally, players need to avoid the doctor which patrols the narrow corridors within the hospital. Obstacles around the level, as well as the many rooms can be used to avoid the enemy.
Gameplay Teaser
View the teaser of Enlightenment. This video showcases various Gameplay elements as well as the Level Design!
Not possible without our Team
Enlightenment was a blast to work on and would not be possible without the amazing people I work with who provided their incredible insight and expertise to help the game become a reality.
Special thanks to:
Lorenz Holzknecht – Management , 3D Artist and Texturing, Sound Design, Concept Art
Yasar Yazir – Level Design, Game Design
Anja Rindermann – Animation and Character Design
Felix Dill – 3D Artist and Texturing
