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Frozen In Time
Frozen In Time is a Top-Down Shooter that utilized Ice weapons and a Time Travel mechanic to defeat enemies and overcome puzzles.
Gameplay Design
Time Shift
Time Shifting is the main mechanic in the game. It allows the player to travel between the Past and Present.
Design Questions
What if an obstacle is in the way in the other Time?
This was an interesting design choice. I didn't want players teleporting into a wall.
My first iteration involved pushing the player out of the collision, but this caused confusion and didn't always work as expected.
End result: The Time Bubble appears, and shows obstacles in the other Time. This visualizes to the player where objects are, and alerts them if they try to teleport into one.
Can enemies travel through time?
Yes! If an enemy is caught in the Time Bubble, they travel with the player.
End result: This either creates a challenge for the player to position themselves better when teleporting. OR gives the player an advantage, but isolating an enemy so they can deal with one at a time.
Weapons
There are 4 weapons available to the player.
Ice Gun
The basic damage-dealer. Kills enemies
Freeze Ray
Slows enemies, then completely stops their movement and attacking once fully frozen.
Damage is doubled when enemy is frozen.
Ice Shield
Blocks enemy attacks.
Ice Wall
Creates a barrier to separate groups of enemies.
Dropping a wall on an enemy is an instakill.
Health
The player takes body or weapon damage based on where they are hit.
Body Damage: The player dies when health reaches 0.
How to Heal: Health automatically regenerates up to a third. Health stations are in levels to fully restore.
Weapon Damage: A weapon is unusable when the health reaches 0.
How To Heal: Repairing a weapon by playing a QTE minigame.
Enemies
There are 2 types of enemies the player can encounter
Gunner Mech
Attacks the player from range.
Shield Mech
Shields an enemy mech when their health gets too low.
Charges the player and kamikazes when shield breaks.
Level Design
Process
Process of beginning Level Design
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Wrote out ludonarrative and mechanics.
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Quickly sketched a rough idea of level layouts.
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Blocked out levels in Unreal
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Rapidly tested level layout and iterated on it after tests.
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Decorated levels with art
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Rapidly tested arted level and made tweaks based on feedback data.
Ideas and sketches
When developing the mechanics, I laid out a plan for how the game will play ludonarratively, and how each mechanic will be introduced.
I used the narrative layout to brainstorm level ideas. I quickly sketched out 5 levels so I can get an idea of how I would pace out the game.
Gray-Boxing and Prototyping
I quickly boxed out my sketches in Unreal Engine and tested them immediately. After each test, I would change my layout based on playtest feedback.
This image above is the final whitebox before I started to put art into the level.
Considering Art:
Although this was a solo project, I still took art and sound into consideration when blocking out the levels. I had limited assets, so I couldn't do anything that was unreasonable for the assets I had. This would translate similarly to a team project, if I were to consult the artists and know their limits.
Once the level is arted, I would do the same type of testing and iteration. Changes were much smaller after these tests as changing the art was much more of a hassle.
Challenges working with Two Timelines
Past - Factory is restored and enemies habit it
Present - Factory is in ruins and foliage is growing
As seen by these images, every level had "two" levels inside it. The game's core mechanic was traveling through time, which meant developing play spaces that fit each timeline.
Working with this kind of level design would have been a massive headache without strong organization.
Every environmental piece had to be kept in its respective folder:
Past Objects
Present Objects
Both Times
This helped me keep track of everything, and also allow me to toggle between Past and Present in the editor so I could focus on one timeline at a time.
Level Evolution
The series of videos showcase the level design as it introduces mechanics and features one at a time in a natural pace.
Environmental Storytelling
The game introduces the player to the world. A ruined world that slowly reveals broken down metal and buildings.
Introduce Weapon
The player is quickly introduced the the first weapon, and must shoot it to advance.
Introduce Second Weapon
The player is given a second weapon, allowing them to fire from two cannons
Introduce Time Shifting
The player is introduced to Time Shifting by it happening automatically, leaving the player questioning what happened.
Repeat Time Shifting
Time Shifting is shown again in the new level, revealing that the world changes when it happens. The player is allowed to continue.
Introduce Enemies
The player is presented with a few enemies to fight, introducing combat.
Give The Player Time Shift
Now that the player understands combat and has seen Time Shifting, the ability is given and can be used at any time to begin using in puzzles and combat.
Introduce Customization and More Weapons
Towards the end of the first level, the player is introduced to a new weapon and can customize the mech. Giving new opportunities of of combat and expression
Re-imagining A Game
Frozen In Time is actually recreation of a Unity game I made in my Sophomore year, Ice Mech!
My reasoning for wanting to remake this game was that it was my favorite project I made at DigiPen. It was praised by the professor for being "one of the best games of the semester." With that, I realized going into my capstone class, I needed to make something really good, so why not expand on something I already made?