QUEST FOR THE GOLDEN IDOL
Game Design Experience
Background of the Project
Game design adaptation from board game concept designed by the team. Quest for the Golden Idol is a first-person game diving into Unity and interactive game play concept.
Role
Lead Designer and Programmer - Tym Lang
Experience Designer and Visual Design - Marcus Abad
3D Modeler and Graphics - Christian Bearden and Rainie Dang
Tools
Adobe CC | Unity | Blender | Unity Asset
Outcome
Designed a game experience and exploration on interactive 3D modeling
Duration
2-3 weeks
O1
Research Strategy
Brainstorm
Game Ideas
Interaction Research
Project Kick Off
Our team brainstormed about a conceptual game design based on the initial board games we designed at the beginning of the Fall 21 term. With Tym Lang’s initial Golden Temple board project, we could adapt the board game mechanics and design a videogame.
What key elements can we adapt from the Golden Idol Board Game?
What type of affordance does the user have to achieve the goal?
What obstacles will prohibit the users that add difficulty to the game?
What will be the mood of the game experience?
What interactions can we adapt from this new game experience?
Who will be our target audience for the game?
Project Pitch
Quest for the Golden Idol is a single-player maze environment wherein the player gets to explore the temple and locate the Golden Idol, but in order to win the game, players must find the key to the mysteriously dark paths of the temple!
Overview of the Golden Temple Project
The idea began as a board game, and some of the team had previously created working remotely with Tabletop Simulator due to COVID. The project aimed to develop a game with a sense of suspense. We drew inspiration from games like Betrayal At House on the Hill, Zombies!, and the roguelike video game genre.
Golden Temple is a cooperative game where three players explore a temple created by drawing from a deck of map tiles. This was to give an air of mystery, so the players didn’t know what lay ahead for them. Depending on the type of tile the player moved to, they would draw a card from either the Event, Trap, or Treasure Decks. They would continue to explore the Temple until they achieved an objective, also removed at random. This would ensure each game was unique.
Naturally, the drawback was that this game required a time commitment to grasp the more complex rules and finish the objective. We felt this was potentially a perfect game to convert to a videogame due to the ability to offload some elements to scripting.
O2
Define
Game Overview
Game Mechanics
Game Objectives
Genre
Adventure and TPS
Features
Rocket, you can control + navigate through space with
Collisions (asteroids + astronauts)
Cool planetary system
Platform and Demographics
A game for all ages and a web-based game system
Unique Selling Point
Save all the astronauts and a thrilling part is to avoid any randomized asteroids free-flowing
Game Mechanics
Goal
Users will attempt to save a certain number of astronauts
Obstacle
#1 Space is an open environment and the only way to find astronauts is to explore the void
#2 Users colliding with asteroids lose the round
#3 Timed game experience
The space rangers will be out on a mission to save the lives of their fellow astronauts.
Space rangers (the rocket) can speed up outer space.
Recent asteroid movements were heading in the area, and it’s going to be part of the game obstacle. If you collide with an asteroid, you lose, and the game ends!
Save all of the astronauts to win!
O3
Ideate | Prototype
Assets
3D Modeling
Game Environment
Game Controls
Lighting and Sound
Lead Engineer utilizing Unity for the Lighting and Sound system:
Light source from Sun
Galactic sounds
Using Blender and Unity, our team explored modeling the main objects incorporated in the game environment.
Astronaut
Spaceship
Asteroid
Planets
Galaxy
3D Models
UI Design
I designed the Intro screens and End screen UI. Providing feedback from my lead engineer to incorporate the point system and time UI on Unity.
Game Movements
Since the game will be web-based, the keyboard and mouse functions will be the primary triggers for the game's movement.
O4
Final Design
Working Prototype
Mockups
