Monday, January 31, 2011

Paper prototype


I've made my paper prototype which gave me a good feel for the how I wat to lay out everything. I've decided upon having 7 valves to turn in the puzzle, not including the given one. I still don't the number of turns I should limit the player to yet though.
I also have some peices of paper for the paper prototype so the player can keep track of which valves have been turned on and which water fixtures are working.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Design Document

The level will begin with you looking at a valve. If you mouse over it, you will find that you can turn it. If you do, a shower head to the right of you will turn on and a nymph will appear to play under the spout. (no she won't be naked) If you turn it off, she will disappear.

Looking around you will see a system of pipes all intertwined and running in and out of each other. Some will reach higher than your head and others will snake along the ground. A clear path through the pipes will be apparent. Along this path you will come across more valves you can turn and, just out of your reach, a bathtub, a water pump, a sprinkler, and a fountain.

It seems someone has turned off all of the water for the nymphs that live here and they are not happy about it. They're only giving you a limited amount of nozzle turns before they become infuriated and go back into hiding and reset all of your valves.

Turning the nozzles to turn on the faucets would seem easy but turning one may cut off the water line to one faucet and turn on the other. Some valves must stay off while others stay on and you only have that limited number of nozzle turns to figure out which valve is which. Only the first valve you turned at the beginning is a given.

When you have solved this puzzle, the nymphs will once again be pleased and sing of their happiness, thus ending the level.


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The gameplay for this level was heavily inspired by what I remember of the pipe world in the first Myst game and will probably have a similar style.

The pipes will all seem new with shiny silver plated valves and sparkling new porcelain fixtures. It will greatly contrast the starkness of the rest of the world which will mostly consist of grass and dirt. The setup of the city and pipes will be largely simplistic because of the need to design the nymphs and the puzzle.

My Choice

I've chosen to create a level for the city Armilla whose description is found on page 49 of Invisible Cities.