Devlog 1

KIT109 Games Fundamentals – Assignment 2 – Game Development Devlog

Title: Northern Silence

Concept Statement: In Northern Silence, you play as a covert operative navigating a sabotage mission in the Siberian wilderness. Using stealth, strategy and resource management, you must outwit the soviet forces as well as a mysterious third party to complete your mission.

Genres: RPG, Stealth, Action-adventure, Puzzle

• RPG: Northern Silence can be considered an RPG because you are stepping into the role of your main character, which is a covert operative, essentially taking on their story. The player will be able to make decisions that they feel best progresses their story as their character (although the game will be fairly linear). And finally, the gameplay will be driven by the story. The player continues on the path that I have laid out for them, with options to uncover further lore if they wish.
• Stealth: Northern Silence will emphasize the importance of stealth, penalising players for getting caught. The game will not have any combat in the sense that the player will not be able to fight back, so stealthily moving through the game through the use of disguises, hiding and various other espionage effects will be crucial to the gameplay loop.
• Action-Adventure: It is an action-adventure game because of its focus on exploration, where the player will navigate through dangerous environments, exploring as they go in order to progress the game. While as said before there will not be any combat, through the use of stealth mechanics and escape sequences the player will have plenty of action. And finally, many adventure games also use some problem solving and puzzles in their gameplay and given the espionage and stealth focus these will also be key in the gameplay for Northern Silence.
• Puzzle: While I haven’t decided on the exact nature of the puzzles present in the gameplay for Northern Silence yet, it is going to have problem solving and in-game puzzles to solve in order to complete the game. Through things such as radiated zones players have to figure out how to navigate and surveillance systems that require the player to strategically think about their next move. In addition, puzzles such as picking locks or basic hacking will likely be present in some form.  

Concept Creation Process: This game was created based on an alt-history that I have written for another project and allowed me to explore a key point in that history more in depth than I have before. As a big part of that I had already written an alternative timeline where this story will be based on, and it will contain references and hints as to what that story is. This whole process gave me the basic idea and scenario which would play out in the game, as well as the world setting.

From there I was able to figure out what sort of game that I would want to create from the lore. And from this, I knew that it would be a story focused game (to explore the story that I had created more), with espionage elements built in (based on the intended lore). From there I figured that it would be simpler and more interesting if there was no player combat (ie not a shooter), and instead focused heavily on stealth mechanics and puzzles for progression and gameplay. In addition, due to the mission’s specifics I needed to have radiation mechanics (spoiler), which would be another fun element to add to the game. In my head, I expect the stealth mechanics to be the focus for the first half of the game, and then have it transition into more radiation mechanics later.

The main influence for this game for me was mostly my interest in history, specifically 1700s onwards as well as my interest in world building (specifically alt-history world building). This has mainly come from playing historical grand strategy games from Paradox, which my game is nothing like. In addition, watching some alt history on YouTube had inspired me to make this. In terms of what games mine is partially based on for ideas, I can point to games such as Metal Gear, which has similar stealth mechanics to what I am intending to develop. In addition, it also has the main mission to infiltrate a base of some kind, which again is similar to what I am intending to do.

Audience: In general, the game will be designed for people who enjoy RPG games with puzzle elements. The stealth genre will feel more like main feature, but people who do not enjoy stealth games may not enjoy this one. While the game is not designed for one gender, because of some of the themes it is likely that men will enjoy it more. And of course, if they like story, especially alt history stories they will likely enjoy this game.

Competitive Analysis: As said before, this game takes inspiration from games such as Metal Gear, which was a largely successful game that turned into a franchise. It will employ similar stealth mechanics to that game, as well as a similar theme. It differs from it that it will be entirely stealth focused with no player combat. It will challenge the player to remain hidden through various means and punish them when they fail to do so. One of the more recent releases similar to Northern Silence is UnMetal. UnMetal is another action-adventure stealth game that released in April 2021. In this game, the main character is attempting to escape a prison through stealth mechanics. It is a top down 2d game like the game I am intending to develop.

The main way mine differs to this and other competitors is hopefully in its story, as well as in some of its stealth mechanics and other mechanics that are introduced later into the game. While the general stealth mechanics will be quite similar, it will also use things such as disguises and espionage things such as disabling cameras to make the game easier/more interesting.

A game that is similar to mine, but failed is Aragami Shadow Edition (2018). The gameplay of it focused on stealth and puzzles, and again avoiding direct combat, but failed due to some issues such as low frame rate, visual downgrades and inconsistent controls. Because of this, people who played this game had a bad experience, despite enjoying the original game.

Game Treatment & Concept Art:

In Northern Silence, you play as a covert operative tasked with disrupting soviet production of a new unknown weapon. You are dropped deep into the Siberian wilderness and must make your way stealthily to the soviet facility, infiltrate it, find the weapon and its means of production and sabotage it before the weapon can be completed and shipped away. You will complete these missions stealthily, with no combat options for the player, you must be careful and plan your path to avoid the guards, searchlights and even the cameras. Then, you must get past their other defences, such as coded locks and other puzzles that may be waiting for you. Using disguises, problem solving, stealth and limited resources, you must complete your mission and disrupt the soviet plans.

There are a few features that are planned to be introduced in the game. Here is the short list:

• Espionage and Stealth Mechanics: Players must use stealth to navigate through the facility, getting seen will result in alerting the enemies. Players must hide behind objects, assess enemy patrols, avoid cameras and spotlights, and use disguises to make their way through the facility undetected.
• Intelligence Gathering: Collecting information will be key to the success of the player, revealing valuable information on both the lore, and mission related information. Things such as door codes may be hidden in paperwork or notes, or maybe even used by the guards if you pay close enough attention. They may also be stored in locked terminals, if you can unlock them!
• Radiation mechanics: As the mission progresses, you may find patches of radiation throughout the map, identified by its luminous glow. Simply put, radiation is bad for you and may block your path or damage your character. Through the use of a Geiger counter that you have found, and basic radiation blocking suits that you may find, these areas may be traversed.
• Puzzles and Sabotage Missions: To progress through the facility, you will need to use some problem-solving skills. Through the information you gather and some relatively simple minigames, you will be allowed to complete puzzles and progress or gather extra information that will help you later.
• Limited Supplies: Supplies that you can use will be sparsely spread throughout the facility, from health packs to disguises, you must manage these carefully and use them effectively as you cannot take any of them with you. (i.e. no inventory system)
• Escape Sequences and “Random” Events: You may have to react quickly in some circumstances, whether it be escaping from enemy units or some unforeseen events, escape sequences may be included to surprise the player and force them to react quickly. These may be difficult.

While these are some of the planned features, some of these may not make it to the demo submitted at the end of the semester. What will definitely be included is the stealth/espionage mechanics and limited supplies.

This is a visual representation of the general idea behind the stealth mechanics. This was taken from the Metal Gear Solid game, as it uses similar stealth mechanics to what I intend to implement into the game. In this, the white dot cone represents the player and the red dot cones represent the enemies. Then the green outlines show the walls or objects that the player can hide behind. This is a simplified view of how it would work in game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MGS_Solton_Radar_Shot.svg

This is a visual representation of the general idea behind the stealth mechanics. This was taken from the Metal Gear Solid game, as it uses similar stealth mechanics to what I intend to implement into the game. In this, the white dot cone represents the player and the red dot cones represent the enemies. Then the green outlines show the walls or objects that the player can hide behind. This is a simplified view of how it would work in game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mgear.png

This is another screenshot from the Metal Gear Franchise, this one from the original game. This shows the main character hiding from enemies behind the tank. Again, this just shows roughly how the stealth mechanics will work. By avoiding direct line of sight from enemies, the player will be able to avoid detection. In addition, the game will be a 2D top-down game like this one.

While this image is not the art style I will likely go for, it does show the general idea that I want to go for, for how the facility will look. A mix of large research buildings, houses for the workers and some production facilities spread throughout. The general art style I want to go for is a bit darker than this is presenting.

Here is another generation done which shows the art style I want to go for a bit more than the previous. It also makes the facility look more industrial which again is sort of what I am hoping to go for. I want to give the impression that it is a dark and bad place, giving the player a slightly eery sense.

This is a more pixel art version of the inside of the facility. In the game it won’t be this zoomed out, more of a traditional zoom level like shown in the metal gear picture. It does show the general style that I want to go for, but due to time constraints and the fact that I am not a visual art designer, it will be a lot simpler and use a relatively basic tile map. It also shows an ominous green glow from “something”.

The Previous 3 Images were generated by Designer ^.