The Anatolian Trail - Design and Programming
The Anatolian Trail is a point-and-click adventure game. My initial role on the project was to create a 3D proof of concept to be included in a project proposal. The project was awarded a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Development Info
Game: The Anatolian Trail
Genre: 2D Point and Click Adventure
Developers: 12
Engine: Unity with Adventure Creator
Responsibility
Game and Level Design
Project Management
Gameplay Programming
UI Programming
Environment Art
Design and Program Cutscenes
Overview
Level Design and Programming for a point and click adventure
The Anatolian Trail is an educational 2D Point and Click adventure game that transports the player back in time 5000 years to the age of the Proto-indo Europeans. The main objective of the game is to find your way back to the present by interacting with the ancient people. The player must learn the language and cultural customs to unlock clues about the unnatural forces that sent you travelling through time. Levels consist of various quests and puzzles to progress through the story.
Version 1
Our first iteration of the project was a 3D environment created in Unity as a proof of concept. I designed the layout and did the environment art. The goal was to showcase how video games can be used to educate students about culture and language. This build was submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2018. We received the grant and were awarded funds to continue development.
Version 2:
Considering the feedback from the NEH, we decided to make the game 2D so that it was more accessible to schools and students. The classic point and click adventure format works to provide the player with the most immersive and educational experience while keeping difficulty levels low.
The following documentation is for version 2 of the project.
Design Goals
• Create an experience that is entertaining for school age children while also teaching them about linguistics, history, and anthropology.
• Use Adventure Creator in Unity to develop a complete game experience
• Provide proof of concept to be submitted in a grant to the National Endowment for the Humanities
• Create levels where the player can switch between two characters at any moment
• Utilize my experience in archaeology to develop puzzles and quests.
• Create a 2D point and click adventure
Game and Narrative Flow Charts:
Below are samples of flowcharts created to organize design, logic, and narrative.
Overview: Programming, UI, and Project Management
Programming:
To create puzzles, quests, and the dialogue system I utilized a combination of Adventure Creator action lists and custom scripts in c#.
UI Programming:
To implement UI for dialogue, I created multiple prefabs in Unity that display the portrait of the character speaking and their corresponding dialogue.
Project Management:
As a project manager for the programmers, I communicated and coordinated with the design and art teams regularly. I assigned responsibilities and set deadlines to ensure we met the project deadlines using HacknPlan and Discord.
Post Mortem
What went right?
• Using Adventure Creator was instrumental in the development of the project. We could concentrate on design and game feel since the basic scripts were already implemented.
• Puzzles and Quests taught the player about proto-indo European culture and language
• Creation of flowcharts helped visualize progression through the game. We identified weak spots in design and were able to make decisions before programming the game in Unity.
What went wrong?
• With only two weeks until our deadlines there was a lot of stress placed on team members. High stress results in slow performance and frustration.
• Since the art was created before the design could be tested or iterated upon, some scenes seem tedious and break up the natural flow of the game
• With no consistent format for puzzles it seemed that each scene was its own game
• Adventure Creator’s dialogue system did not line up with our initial design. Due to time constraints the conversation system I worked on was not always reliable.
• There was a lot of tedious work taking scripts from a word document and implementing them through text in game. Using a dialogue plugin or integrating software such as ink with Adventure Creator would benefit both programmers and writers.
What have I learned?
• Use of adventure creator to create puzzles, quests, cutscenes, conversations, and collectibles
• Create custom scripts to work with adventure creator and changing default scripts to better suit the project’s need.
• Sacrificing scope due to time constraints would result in a more consistent gameplay experience and happier team members
• Creating and programming UI to fit design
• It is important to iterate and test design of puzzles, quests, and scenes prior to the creation of art assets. Using temporary art or basic outlines by the artist would be more efficient than getting a final product that we may never use.
• Implementing Spine animations with Unity and Adventure Creator