Midnight Walk - Designer Breakdown

Designer Breakdown

Casket Street

Finished version of Casket Street

Description

One of the areas I re-designed and re-scripted the content for completely. The old version of the puzzle was confusing, and the level-unique ghost had been completely reworked (by another designer) due to gameplay issues.

Constraints

· Pre-recorded dialogue and story beats required the listening mechanics to be preserved.

· Environmental changes were restricted as the area was already arted.

· Most work had to rely on existing assets.

Ghost Segments

All ghost segments were completely reworked. The new ghost could be set up to spawn at specific places and would charge directly at the player.

It charges at the player as it spawns.

Blinking at the ghost makes it disappear.

Blinking Mechanic

As the ghost used the game's "blinking mechanic" I incorporated it into the level design as well. Like teleporting the player to a new location as they blink on an eye object.

... you blink and find yourself in a dark environment.

The idea was to go "in and out" of a dark dimension where the ghost could appear and hunt you down.

This was used in multiple areas of the level.

Re-used Assets

There weren't really many possibilities to add new assets into the game, so I had to work with what already existed.

To add som more interest into the ghost encounters, I added some jumpscares by creating a modified blueprint of the ghost, where it could spawn and run past the player instead of chasing him.

The ghost blasts past the player!

I'm usually not a fan of jumpscares, but it was a cheap and quick way to add some interest to the level without adding new content. This was also utilized in the dark cave at the beginning of the level. To add some foreshadowing.

... can you see it? Running by in the background.

A lot of non-subtitled ambient voicelines already existed for this area. With lines like "Listen for the bone", "Light the Match", "Over there", etc. I used these and some unused ragdoll animations to guide the player and to add some narrative flavor.

Ragdolls and ambient voicelines re-used to guide the player.

Ragdolls and voicelines re-used for narrative flavor.

Listening Puzzle

As you close your eyes, hidden objects emit a sound.

While your eyes are closed, you can listen for hidden objects (in casket street it's a bone). But as the level layout was built using corridors, the hidden object could easily be blocked off by walls depending on the player's position. The sound wasn't affected by walls, so players got confused looking for it in the wrong places.

As Casket Street was difficult to re-art, I couldn't make any big changes to the environment. Therefore I opted for splitting the listening up into parts.

Instead of one bone, you'd listen for eye symbols hidden in caskets

I added triggers so the active sound also moves back if the player ever decides to backtrack. To decrease the issue with the walls even further.

As the player activates the last one, a door is opened to the catacombs.

Tutorial and navigation

The blinking is also used to change things in the environment (while the player can't see anything). This was used both for tutorialization and navigation by locking the player into specific parts of the level.