The Admiral
Project type: University team project
Engine: Unity
Languages: C#
Primary Role: Game & NarrativeDesigner, Programmer
Team Members: Bryan Nguyen, Nicholas Olsen, Mallow Chu
The Admiral is a 2.5D narrative-driven platformer with supernatural mechanics using telekinetic weight-based push/pull powers. It is about finding the courage to say goodbye and following through with your decision.
Design
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Designed a playful open space for players to platform using their push/pull powers
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Each level is incredibly unique, making use of the 3D space. Players traverse in all directions in a variety of ways
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Platforming through caves, flying through an astral space, climbing cliffs, etc.​
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The main mechanic is weight-based
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Pushing on heavier objects than the player would push the player away
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Pulling on heavier objects pulls the player to it
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Vice Versa for lighter objects
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Narrative
The narrative was inspired by our core mechanic being weight-based. It works together with the mechanic to build a powerfully emotional tale that make's players feel the weight of their journey.
Transformation of our Narrative
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Originally, the narrative involved 3 characters. The story asked players that if they had the chance, would they save their former love to be with them or accept the loss and continue their present story with their current partner in life?
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Because of deadlines, we realized after pre-production that we were massively overscoped. We used our game macro to easily rearrange and edit story beats.
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After seeking advice from mentors and our class brain trust, we rewrote a stronger and more concise story. Our new narrative not only kept a similar theme, but opened up new avenues for design
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Despite our narrative pivot happening during full production, it was a blessing that helped us get over blocks for level design
The Story
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Our story is still about going back in time to when your past love died
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However, it is now about gaining the courage to say goodbye and following through
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The narrative takes the player through different supernatural areas like a dreamlike astral plane and back in time to the player's home in memory
Audio
We collaborated with the Berklee College of Music to create original compositions for all sequences of the game
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This was difficult, having little experience in audio design and initial lack of knowledge of music terms
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Through this partnership, I learned that rather than using music terms, describing feeling and emotion or using phrases like "calm before the storm" was much more useful to our composer
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The project also used Wwise as middleware to control audio in Unity. I created code that easily allowed the audio implementer to integrate and adjust audio after each playtest
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An audio asset list was used to organized and manage every asset need
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Description, Use cases, and instructions for audio implementation​
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