Whispers of the Ocean is an underwater RPG slice and gives the player control over the mermaid Liera. One of the last mermaids who survived the great war. Having settled in the deep dark after the war, the mermaids took on a more abyssmal appearance.
Specification: My Contributions: Tools:
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Studio: Waterproof Studios
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Student project: 10 weeks
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Engine: Unreal Engine 4
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Team size: 20
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2 Designers
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2 Game Writers
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6 Programmers
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6 Artists
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4 Sound & Music designers
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Game design
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Level design & dressing
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Narrative design
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Scripting/Programming
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VFX
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Project management
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Quality Analysis
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Unreal Engine 4
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Adobe Photoshop
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Microsoft Excel
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Microsoft Word
Game Design & Narrative
During the development of WOTO we decided to focus on having only one mechanic besides movement. We knew that we were going to have to work with the characters movement for a large amount of time to get it to sit right; the mermaid was going to be able to move fully in 3D space, for this we had to make sure that the camera and the controls were feeling good.
Besides the movement we implemented an interaction mechanic where the mermaid would sing to different objects and they would react differently.
This allowed us to create a more vivid and breathing world in which things actually reacted to the players prescence and actions, instead of focusing on giving the player an array of different mechanics - we focused on creating one that allowed us to grant the player the illusion of a larger, living world.
Since the game was going to be narratively driven, we focused on making exploration as intriguing as possible; together with the Game Writers me and the other designer started working on points of interest. All mermaids wear these necklaces and can record their sirens song for others to listen to after their death. It contains story and a unique siren song for each one.
At the end of the game the player ventures beyond the safe zone and encounters the Great One. An old relic of forgotten times that's been said to have protected and guided the forlorn tribes. The player enters and is granted a vision. I wanted the player to get a lot of backstory in an interesting way here. What we did was to teleport the player to an entirly dark area when entering. In this area the player was guided by a particle system. Where the particles stopped, the player was introduces to a flash from before.
After the vision the player is sent back to the entrance and sees a necklace sinking down toward the bottom of the sea floor. This is the final necklace of the game in which the players sister has recorded that she also had been granted a vision. That she thought the humans would be kind and do no harm.
Level Design
Woto was the first game where I had to consider the level from complete 3D traversability. I had to work a lot with negative spacing and still keeping every area relevant somehow. For this purpose me and the other designer created a type of tunnel network that ran through the sides and the roof of the cave in which the player started out. This allowed us to create not only more open and explorative experience, but also gave the world some character and depth.
Alpha Level Sketch of upper starting area
The first area was meant to be part of the old city where the mermaids once resided. This is set inside an underwater cavern. From this area the player progresses to the lower halls. Generally we wanted the player to go further down during the mid-section of the game.
The lower halls were a way for us to give the player a more horizontal area to explore after the fully open one; the halls had a low "roof". After the Lower Halls the player would move upwards to the Great One and then enter.
For this area we really wanted a grand reveal, since it's main focus has to be the great structure of the Great One. I created a curved path and lined it with big symmetrical blocks to look like it was made and place there by someone. It became a large curved stair up to the reveal of the Grand one. The second you exited the cave and got to see the full structure of the Great One the music changed into a more dramatic track. We really worked hard to get this scene feeling both ominous and intriguing.
We knew that we needed to guide the player somehow during the game. We didn't want them to get lost in the exploration. We started working with the lighting of the levels, placing interactable flowers that the player could sing to and they would light up a small path, indicating the direction that the player should go toward.
I also worked with lighting in a more static fashion, trying to highlight interesting areas for the player to explore without shoving the area in the players face. This could be done by either having something like a god ray shinig on a specific area, or having an eel giving off a slight luminescent light when moving along the rift for example.
Just before exiting the cave, fog starts to lift from the Great One.
In the starting area, the player might spot the necklace releasing bubbles in the light