Sour Security
2nd person sandbox puzzle, where you play as a security guard who hacks an office environment to knock out his coworkers.
The game is based on a prototype I developed in the week leading up to this project, which can be found here.
Key Takeaway The importance of managing cognitive load
Giving players the freedom of choice comes with the risk of increased decision paralysis if not managed properly. Systems need to be both communicated in a clear way as well as presented in manageable chunks to avoid cognitive overload.
RoleTech Gameplay Designer, Product Owner
EngineUnreal Engine 5.4
Team size7
Timeline4 weeks - Q4 2024
Ideation - 3 days
Prototyping - 7 days
Production - 4 weeks
Overview
Main challenges
Design & implementation highlights
Object highlight system designed to ensure that the player isn't overwhelmed with the amount of available choices
Onboarding system designed to help players to get through the tutorial section by reducing risks of missing mechanics or getting stuck
Project
Project brief
Create a game in Unreal Engine based on the "Antagonist" theme
Team goal
Make a 2nd person sandbox puzzle game, where the player eliminates NPCs using the environment without getting caught
Design pillars
Sillyness
Use simple systems interacting with each other to create comedic, memorable moments
Guilt-free fun
Mess around with people without feeling guilty about it
Tactical genius
Plan and execute the perfect way of getting revenge
Core gameplay loop
Gameplay design
Problem Difficult to read the game
Hard to identify object functionality - there was no way of judging the type of interaction an object had without interacting with it
A lot of interactable objects at once - increased cognitive overload by providing too many options at the screen at once
Hard to find cameras - made navigation harder
Solution #1 Object highlight system
The game had a highlight feature that highlighted objects targeted by the player, or all interactable objects in the entire level when the Alt-button was being pressed.
I designed and implemented a system that divided the level into three areas and kept track of the player's progress between them, only enabling objects in the current area.
I also adjusted the design of the highlight feature that would help players differ between different types of interactions, which was implemented by a developer teammate.
Less simultaneous highlights on the screen - reducing the risk of cognitive overload
Different colors for different interactions - helped players identify which objects can be used for distraction, knock out etc...
Solution #2 Moving cameras
Designed and implemented passive movement and a blinking light as a way to draw attention to cameras, to make them stand out more in the environment and helping players to identifying them quicker
Cameras were easier to see thanks to the motion and blinking light
Added immersion, as the camera movement added to the feeling of someone watching over people
Problem Limited onboarding
Early onboarding was short and limited, not introducing players to parts of the game
Players missed game mechanics - because the tutorial was limited to a separate area
Players couldn't skip non-functional dialogue that was put there for narrative reasons
Solution Onboarding system
Designed and implemented an onboarding system that would let players skip narrative dialogue and wait for the proper action to be performed before moving on to the next onboarding step
I used dialogue functionality developed by a teammate to show and hide text, and made some adjustments to make it skippable
Opt-in to narrative - players who aren't interested in narrative can skip it
Players can't interact with disabled objects - reducing the risk of players having to start over due to incorrect order of actions
Problem Puzzles were simplistic
No need to think more than 1 step ahead - NPCs could be attracted to knocked out using a single object
Few ways of combining mechanics - leading to the gameplay lacking meaningful depth
Solution #1 Separate crowd control and knock out
Redesigned objects so that objects that could distract could no longer also knock out NPCs
Crowd control now played a bigger role outside of distracting non-targets to avoid detection The player now has to set up their target's position more carefully, which can require multiple steps.
Gameplay gained meaningful complexity giving the game more depth as a whole
Solution #2 Shoot to knock out
Designed and implemented objects that can knock out targets at a range
An additional tool for players to knock out their targets
Slapstick humor that was appreciated by testers and observers
Design process
Product Owner
Responsibilities
Define a vision together with the team
Support ongoing work to ensure that we work towards a single vision and correct course when necessary
Plan development efforts by proritizing features and defining milestones
Help with cross-discipline communication to ensure alignment for tasks that involve multiple teammates
Communication
Game Design Document
I put together a very high level game design document for the team to rally around. The goal was to be concrete enough to paint a picture of what we are trying to make, without restricting creattivity too much.
Design specifications
I put together a flowchart of the vision I had for a first draft of how narrative can be intertwined with onboarding. It was made for our level designer and another technical designer to continue collaborating on
I created a first overview of the coworker behaviour for a programmer teammate who was working on implementing AI, so that he could start putting together a structure of the technical solution
