Akshat Sinha - Neil and Zora

A narrative driven exploration/puzzle solving game, which follows the story of Neil and his dog Zora, who together go on an expedition, to find out what happened to his dad.

FULL GAMEPLAY WALKTHROUGH

Neil and Zora was my first team project. I worked as a designer, lead developer, 3D artist, as well as a texturing artist on this project.

The game followed the story of several generations of adventurers. Neil's father was also one amongst them, who lost his life, exploring an ancient temple. To find out what happened to his dad, and fulfill his legacy, Neil sets out to explore the ancient temple himself, but he has his dog, Zora to accompany him.

The game starts with you getting stuck in a cave, which you found is the entrance to the temple. As you go through the game, you realise that the puzzles in the temples are designed in a way that, it will always take two to solve them. Thus you realise that having Zora with you is extremely important as she is the key to going through all the puzzles.

Throughout the game, the player has the ability to control both Neil and Zora, and can switch between them anytime they want. As Neil, you can instruct Zora to stop or follow him. Both characters have different strengths and weaknesses. While Neil has the ability to use his hands to pull levers, grab objects; Zora on the other hand has the abilities to run faster, and jump higher, making her reach places that Neil couldnt.

The game focuses on building a strong bond between both the characters, through level design. As the player plays as both of the characters and navigates through different obstacles and puzzles, they understand the importance of the relationship between the characters, and why they need each other.

Total gameplay time : 45mins - 1 hour. Developed using Unity (High Definition Render Pipeline) and C#, modelling and texturing on Blender.

Gameplay Loops and Game Progression

The game follows a linear storyline. A story told through cutscenes and environment. The core loop of the game is the ability to switch between Neil and Zora. Upon switching characters, the player gets different abilities. Though Zora is the one who follows Neil, it is her, who tells Neil where to go. This is done by switching to Zora. When you switch, you can use your enhanced sense of smell to determine where you have to go next. So then the player can switch back to Neil and go towards where Zora points. As Neil, you have the abilities to make Zora follow you or stop following you, which makes for many interesting scenarios, and is extremely useful when solving certain puzzles. You now also have the ability to grab items and have special interactions. Zora has abilities that outmatch Neil in terms of physicality, but Neil is better at "hands on" activities (due to the fact that he has hands). The secondary and the tertiary loop of the game is, finding different keys, which in the end open up the main temple, which holds the treasure you were looking for. BEfore reaching the main temple, the player must go through four smaller temples, who in themselves hide a whole labyrinth of puzzles. To solve these puzzles, the player must spend some time figuring out the right set of commands to give Zora, in order to move forward. This means, that the player has to explore all the possibilities as both the characters, and then come to a reasonable solution, which gets them across.One of these levels are designed specifically for Zora, as the entrance to this temple was too small for Neil to enter. INside are laid puzzles and situations, that require more physical abilities, than a long puzzle solving process, which makes sense giving the fact, that youre now playing as a dog. But now the player has to go through challenges that require hand eye coordination, a sense of timing, and a deep observation for the enviornment. Upon going through all these levels, the player finally has the ability to open the doors to the final temple, where they are greeted with the treasure they were looking for all this while.

Process and Experience

Hand-painted textures for temple walls

Neil and Zora was the first project I worked on in a team. This was also my first research project in college. My role in the creation of the game was of the Lead Programmer; Gameplay and Level Designer; Art Director. The game took a total of 5 months to make. In the first month we were coming up with different ideas, the game infact evolved from an arena escape game, where the player goes around solving small puzzles to progress. The theme of the game was going to be set in an Ancient Aztec ruin. While developing on that idea, I came up with a mechanic, where the player takes control of a dog for one of the puzzles, on which I started prototyping. Once the switching mechanic between the dog and the human character was roughly done, we realised it to be a fun mechanic, and decided to make it our core game loop, upon which we went back to the drawing board and came up with a completely new game idea, which revolved around the relationship between the two characters.

Upon choosing the setting of the game to be in an ancient Indian temple, we had to make sure to capture the visual intricacies the setting needed. For this I hand painted all the textures on the exteriors of the temple. We were going for a semi realistic, but stylised look for the game. Visually I wanted the game to be very close to nature and the earth. We achieved this in multiple ways like, always having an element of the nature around you, presence of plenty flora and fauna, earthly textures for all structures, etc.

The visuals progression of the game happened side by side to level design and development. My inspirations of level design came from a lot of sources, like the Indiana Jones movies, Fire/Ice Temple multiplayer games, Warewolf games, etc. They all gave me ideas for enviornemtal elements, how to craft a level where two characters have to work together, etc. My process was, to draw out a blueprint of the level on paper, make a rough blocking, test it out, fix the pacing, back to the drawing board. I used to also sit and draw out all the puzzles I am going to put, while always keeping in mind to make it for both the characters.

Level design blueprints (Temple Complex). This is the outside part of the temple complex. THis is where the player keeps coming back, after going through different templed. After collecting the keys from Temples 1-4, the player can open and enter the final temple. While collecting the final key, the player comes across an enormous stepwell, where he has to raise a platform from under the water, to cross the well, and reach the final temple, for the last key.

Level design blueprints (Temple 2). This level was designed to be played with both Neil and Zora, thus having a lot of puzzles to solve, using Neil's intelligence, and some interesting platforming, where the player would need to play as Zora to get both of them through. The puzzles are mostly designed in a way, where Neil and Zora both have to be played as to continue on the path.

Level design blueprints (Temple 3). This level was made to be played as Zora only. The player needs to go through the gates of the temple, to actually enter the level. FOr this temple, there was a huge boulder fallen on the gates, which makes it impossible for Neil to pass through, thus making it a Zora only level. The level was designed in a way, where the focus was on platforming, instead of puzzle solving, which is justifiable, as you are playing as a dog.

Character Designs

Neil (Modelled and tetured by me)

Akshat Sinha (Design, Development, Art Direction, Modelling, Texturing) | Gautham Satheesh (3D Modeling, Texturing)

Karan Arora (Narrative)

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