The goal of this project was to learn and use basic game design principles. I gave myself the additional goal of having an educational element, because I enjoy using games as a medium to let people learn something.
Narrative design
The game aims to invoke a sense of curiosity and an interest in the history of Ancient Egypt.
The game has two characters that have dialogue; The pharaoh is a character who has been alone for a long time, so he behaves a bit peculiar. It is as though he has forgotten how to interact with people while maintaining the personality traits that come with being a monarch. Traits like easily deciding over life and death or asking a random person to do things for him, like finding his cat. The sphinx is a vain creature, it believes itself best and others inferior. It likes to make its sentences as well as its riddles complicated. I made its sentences as complicated as I could, while maintaining clarity.
Puzzle Design
The three puzzles in this game are all based on a part of Ancient Egypts culture. The first puzzle has the player encounter the mummy of a pharaoh who lost his mummified cat. Through him the player learns what ancient egyptians believed happened after death and the basics of their funerary rites. The solution to the second puzzle can be found in the Book of the Dead that’s on the wall. The diary of a dead archeologist explains what the Book of the Dead is and provides a hint. In the third puzzle the player encounters the Sphynx and needs to solve his classic riddle.
UI
There is a task in the top left corner and a dialogue box along the bottom of the screen. The font looks Egyptian, but I ensured that it remains readable. The button and divider in the dialogue box are made in Adobe Photoshop using images of Ancient Egyptian jewelry. The gemstones are Saphire, Lapis Lazuli and Turquoise, which were commonly used in Ancient Egypt. The divider has a hawk jewelry piece. Hawks are often featured in Ancient Egyptian Mythology.
Sound Design
I implemented Sound Effects to give the player feedback. Sounds play when doors open and when puzzles are solved.
There are four Background music tracks in this game, one for the menu and one for each room. The music reflects the mood the player should feel for each puzzle. They are edited into seamless loops using Ableton and flow over to each other in different rooms using Fmod.
Level design
Pyramids have very simple interior design, the rooms and hallways are square. To make the level design more interesting, I added some height differences and a lot of details that the players eye can be drawn too. To resemble the inside of a pyramid even more, the lighting is very dim and comes solely from torches. I spend a lot of time making sure all the assets fit together and to make the game look like a realistic Egyptian pyramid. The puzzles increase in difficulty to achieve a sense of progression.
Playtesting
I conducted two playtesting sessions. One where I looked at what the player was doing without interfering and wrote down my observations. I also did playtests where the testers filled out a google form. Based on this feedback, I balanced the puzzles better, made changes to the explanation of the game at the start, added more sound effects and changed the dialogue. I used the form to check if the immersion was good, and if players actually learned something about Ancient Egypt. Both of these goals were reached during the last playtests.