A little problem...

For some odd reason, you have been shrunk down really small,  you don't know why, you don't know how, but what you do know is that you need to try and get back to a normal size

The Gameplay

explore the house as you complete puzzles throughout various levels in an attempt to get back to normal. You will have to:

Stack 'em up! 

You are not going to be able to get up to a lot of places, you are too small for that, fortunately, there are many _{conveniently placed} objects you can stack on top of each other that you can climb to circumvent this

Get in there!

being small does have its uses, you can now fit into places people normally wouldn't go into, like a dollhouse. Why would you want to? maybe it holds some clues to your current predicament

Don't Fall!

Be wary of heights, what was once  a simple task (such as getting off the couch) is now a deadly hazard, one misstep and you'll end up a pancake. Even the couch cushions are dangerous. (Note: fall damage has not yet been implemented, this is something I intend to work on)

Escape

Surely something in this house will let you return to a normal size, but first, you need to get out of the living room, nothing in here holds the answers you need.. maybe the tv holds some clues?

Controls

WASD - Movement

Shift - Run

Spacebar - jump

Ctrl - crouch

Left mouse button  - grab

E - interact

 _{note: if movement stops working (e.g., can't jump, or no audio for jumping, walking, etc.) press ctrl to get it working again (weird bug I have yet to fix)} . 

_{this game was made for my college end of year project, however, I do intend on returning to it and improving it, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy what I have made so far}

My process

this is the process I went through to making my game; how I started and got to the final product

My initial idea

I wanted to create a game about changing size as it sounded really interesting, both in terms of how I'd have to approach gameplay but also the level design. I also wanted to create a few simple mechanics to make the gameplay more interesting (like grabbing and dropping objects). Eventually I had to simplify this idea to having the player just be shrunk as it was hard to design a level around it (although I do eventually plan to come back and add this).  I planned to use low poly art as it would have been easier to create and wouldn't take up too much time (everything you see is made by me, it doesn't look great but I didn't really want to use assets as I didn't want to spend so long searching for assets that fit together) 

The core pillars

I created three core pillars at the start of the project that would serve to ensure I kept my ideas focussed on the final product I wanted to create, these included:

• Keep things simple (I didn't want to create too many mechanics or many complex ones as this would divert attention from level design and taken up too much of the project's time
• No gimmick mechanics (I don't really like gimmick mechanics (mechanics that are only really used in one/ a small area of the game, and are mostly disconnected from the rest of the game) so I wanted to make sure my mechanics didn't become like this and were part of the rest of the game
• Ensure everything fits (this one is a bit more common sense but I thought it'd be important nevertheless, I wanted to make sure everything I had, my ideas, mechanics, etc. that they all fit together and made sense (e.g.,  I'm not adding a blackhole gun because this is not a Sci-Fi game

Research

I wanted to research games with similar mechanics as this game, so I had a better grasp on what the level design might look like, I picked two games for this: Astro Bot and Tales from the Minus Lab (the latter was a university student project), these games showcased how changing size influences the level design and helped shaped the gameplay. For these games, I looked at how they used different level design techniques to help guide the player and make everything feel smooth (like breadcrumbing, leading lines, contrast, etc.). I also did research into interior design as my game takes place in a house, I was actually quite surprised with the information I was able to scrounge, it was very useful and helped me achieve a nice looking living room.

Level design

The first (and currently, the only) level is that of a living room. I wanted something big enough to be able to teach the players the mechanics and controls, and get them used to the gameplay. This took quite a few iterations as I am not an interior designer, so I checked out a few online blogs and guides, as well as asking my peers for feedback to get something I like the look of, with this being the end result.

 It also took a few tries to get the flow of the level right, as I wasn't initially using all the space in the design, but in the end I got something that makes use of most of the space, allowing the player to follow a path that'll allow them to witness much of the living room.

 I wanted the puzzles to make sense and have some kind of reason for being there, so it fits with both the gameplay and narrative, an example would be the tv puzzles: without giving too much away, I wanted to create a puzzle that would make sense to exist in a living room, so I chose to use the tv for this (the player has to turn it on in order to receive a clue to the next puzzle), as such, I also wanted the puzzle elements to make sense in terms of the ludo-narrative _{(the intersection in a game of ludic (ludic just means relating to the game) elements and narrative elements)} so I used elements that would realistically make sense, this took form in the player having to interact with the tv remote on the couch and then the tv itself (or vice versa, the order doesn't really matter) as this would make sense in this setting. I wanted to avoid doing the opposite as I really liked how video games created narratively sound puzzles and wanted to do similar in my own game. I tried my best to make each element of the map and each puzzle fit within the world, so as not to ruin immersion.