Philip Hoare
The Eye in the Wall
Game Design Document | 2021
Tools
Photoshop, Procreate
Skills
Environment Design, Puzzle Design, Mechanics Design
A game design document for an augmented reality detective game about spotting clues in the environment, and character behaviours, to solve a mystery. The game allows the player to watch 3 CCTV tapes from a factory, manned by robots, and find clues to discover which of the robots started a fire that burned the factory down. The player can take screenshots of these clues and use them to question the robots. The game is a mobile game that doesn't show the player the whole tape on the screen and, instead, they must physically move their phone around to see all of the virtual environment.
In this project I learnt a great deal about environment design, particularly environmental storytelling, and how to make a virtual space fun to explore whilst communicating a lived in world and character mannerisms. I also learnt how to guide a player to what they need to see, without them being aware of it, through compartmentalising the space and using guiding lines. I designed multiple new mechanics that are different to those already in the industry and found coming up with new ways for players to interact with games to be the most exciting part of the project.
One-Page Pitch
Interrogation
In the game, players can interrogate the robots to get reactions out of them to discover more about the mystery. I wanted the interaction to be nonverbal, thereby removing the possibility of giving the player dialogue choices and having an obvious correct one. Therefore, I focused the interaction around the player showing the robot pictures that they have taken of the tapes. If the pictures taken contain clues that may incriminate the robot then the robot will react by changing their facial expression or posture.
Each robot has a guard that must be broken by showing 2 pictures that incriminate that robot. When their guard is broken the player can get more information out of them, and can accuse that robot.
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