Project overview
Tome Keeper is a single-player game where you have to seal evil ghosts away by tidying up the library.
This academic project was part of the “Twister” challenge. We got randomly chosen to make a First-Person Simulator game with a twist: the game must have been about a Librarian.
Our team was made of:
- 3 Designers
- 2 Programmers
- 2 3D Artists
- 1 Concept Artist
We had just over a month to complete the project.
At the beginning, we had a lot of ideas, but due to the time constraints, we had to choose a few and focus on them.
After about a half hour of brainstorming we came up with an idea: add the magic to a library.
Gameplay
The gameplay is straightforward:
- Find the fallen books.
- Put them back to obtain 1 stack of energy.
- Once you have enough energy, you can lock the ghosts inside the Black book.
Ghosts are semi-transparent entities that roam the game map. Through a calculation inspired by the octal representation of Linux, we were able to create an algorithm that generates ghosts with increasing difficulty. So with each night you survive, the game gets harder and harder linearly.
We can say that the game also has a small roguelike component since the amount of life (tidiness) which you start the game with, varies depending on the previous night. There are unlimited nights per game.
Additionally, ghosts can spawn animated books, which chase the character and can cause destruction within the library.
We have 5 types of animated books:
- Fire books: they throw a fireball against you and make you lose the books you are carrying.
- Lightning books: they chase you until they are close to you, then stun you.
- Air books: they roam freely in the library, when they are close to a bookshelf, they knock off a book.
- Water books: they are extremely fast books, if you get close to them, they run away.
- Earth books: they just pick a spot, then rest peacefully there.
The game also has lore that is revealed as you play. Every day a few pages of the journals of the old keepers of the library are unlocked and can be read in the main menu and also in-game.
We have also planned to add:
- Events based on the sound of the character's footsteps
- More animations
- A deeper story
- More ghost types
Unfortunately, we only had one month, but we were all extremely happy with what we have achieved.
Roles
In this project I worked as a Lead Designer, we had just over a month to complete the project.
I managed all 7 team members, knowing what they were doing and if we were behind schedule.
I have been in close contact with the entire development team and acted as a spokesperson in case there were any problems in some departments. Fortunately, it didn’t happen.
I admit it was pretty fun and satisfying.
Leaving aside the management part of the team, I took care of the creation of the game map, a pentagonal library.
Level design
The colored walls around the bookcase represent the shelves where animated books are to be stored. The ghosts use the internal shelves to drop the books when he approaches them. In the center of the library, there is a large tree and this is where the player begins his game.
It was quite difficult to make sure that the player did not get lost or confused in a map like this. One solution was to add torches that emit the light of the corresponding element. Since we didn't have much time, we settled for this idea and implemented it. To our surprise, it worked. By doing testing sessions with peers and tutors, 90% of the participants managed to reach at least night 5. For us, it was a great satisfaction and an excellent goal.
An example of the torches hanging on the shelves from the player's point of view.
UI/UX
I also took care of the creation of graphical interfaces for the game. The goals were three:
- To make sure that the player knew when the night was about to end
- That he knew how much life was left
- And in general, create a fantasy mood.
To achieve the first two goals, we needed to make sure that the HUD had the right information. For this reason, a clock is always visible, and not only that, but it also shows when the ghost should spawn, which happens a few seconds after entering the game, the so-called "hour of the spirits".
This is also accompanied by a sound that allows you to understand that the night is about to end.
At first it was not clear when the night was about to end, this was due to the fact that the clock represented a normal wall clock. So we decided to mix the shape of a watch with the functionality of a timer.
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|---|---|
| A prototype of the clock | The clock we used in the game |
In the HUD there are also the "weapons" (stamps) that the player must use to temporarily disable the animated books. It also shows the Black book, the weapon with which the ghost is captured.
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|---|---|
| A prototype of the inventory | The inventory we used in the game |
And for the finishing touch, we decided to make the menus look like the librarian's personal diary, these include the pause, found ghosts, lore clips found, and a brief explanation of how the stamps work.
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|---|---|
| A prototype of the menu | The menu we used in the game |