Eden Falls

DevBlog for an upcoming PC game.

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Evolution: Proposal Pictures

February 2017

March 2017

May 2017

October 2017

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Progress Pics | Volume 1

The first instalment of our progress series. Today we look at the train station sequence, the spot in which a new game starts.

First prototype: Very early days, game still in prototype stages where we were only testing for game functionality.

Second prototype: Second prototype we created for a small pool of testers. In this build we began to add some basic assets and reiterated mechanics. 

Alpha1 Build: After prototyping stages were complete, we began to build the Eden Falls world in Unity, adding various 3d assets.

Alpha2 Build: Following an intensive testing process, we began to iterate certain features, revisit visual choices and added some basic user interface options. 

Beta1 Build (Current Build): User interface is reiterated to fit game aesthetics, more assets have been added to create a more dynamic world (ie. train driver) and improved mechanics.

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Building a Puzzle | Pt 3 - Build + Polish

In the final part of this series, we are going to discuss putting our puzzle together in the engine, Unity. We’ve already covered the creation of the assets in the first instalment and the code behind the puzzle in the second post so please check them out if you haven’t already. Jumping into Unity, we’re going to finish setting up this puzzle.

The puzzle is triggered when the player speaks to a certain character at night after solving several environmental puzzles. As it’s the first puzzle to take place outside the game world, we had to build some new systems for it.

We didn’t want to load a separate level for the puzzle, as this would result in a lot of hassle when resuming the game. Instead, we built it onto a canvas, which could be activated when needed. Canvases in Unity act like layers which sit on top of the game view; we use several for things like the HUD and the journal menu. We built the puzzle in 4 layers; the background image, the complete images, the lines, and finally the stars. The stars needed to be the topmost layer, so that the player could click on them easily

Once the images had been imported and set on the canvas, I started placing stars. After making a single template, I duplicated it repeatedly, moving each copy to a corner on the deer image, and marking the appropriate stars as part of the hidden image. Once this was done, I disabled the deer image, and started placing lines to link the stars up. With them in place, I then had to select each one and link the scripts on them to the appropriate stars. This quickly became incredibly tedious.

After testing the puzzle to make sure everything was set up correctly and there were no obvious bugs, I added a little polish. For the two images, I created a pair of animations so that the deer would appear and fade out at the start, and the crow would fade in once the puzzle was solved. I also added animations to the stars, similar to the ones on our menus, that made their size oscillate when the mouse was hovered over them.

After adding a simple UI feature, here is the final product:

And there we have it, creating a puzzle beginning to end in Unity. 

Be sure to keep an eye out for this puzzle in our upcoming build release!

Until then, Team Eden Falls

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Building a Puzzle | Pt 2 - Code

In yesterday’s post, we went through how we created our assets and the prototyping stages. Today, I’m going to outline the code used in our intended puzzle.

The constellation puzzle has three components; the stars, the lines connecting them, and the puzzle controller. To interact with the puzzle, the player clicks on the stars, so I decided to use a Unity button as a template for the star objects. I wrote a simple script that I attached to the button, with a function that would trigger when the button was clicked. This function toggles a boolean value that states whether the star is lit or not. The transparency of the star then changes based on whether the boolean is true or false.

Unfortunately, Unity has no simple way of drawing a line on a UI canvas, and the workarounds I could find weren’t suitable for use. To create them, I opted to use images of thin white lines, which I could move, rotate, and scale as needed to form the image. To each one, I added a script that tracks the two stars the line connects to. If both stars are active it enables the image, otherwise, it disables it.

The puzzle controller is a function of a larger script that controls the entire section of the game that this puzzle appears in. Whenever one of the stars is clicked, this function is called to check if the player has just solved the puzzle. The function loops through all the stars, comparing two boolean values; the one that states whether the star is lit, and another that states whether the star is part of the hidden image. For each star that is correct, an integer value is increased by one. Once all stars have been checked, this integer is compared to the total number of stars. If the values are the same, the player has solved the puzzle and the game proceeds to the next stage.

Like most of the code in Eden Falls, these scripts can be considered a work in progress. They do what they need to, but I’ll always be searching for ways to make them more efficient. Just in the course of writing this blog post I found myself making adjustments to them, so don’t count on any of what I just described still being around by the time you read this. Still, I hope I’ve provided some insight into how a puzzle like this actually works.

Stay tuned for the final instalment of this series in which we talk about how we put together the puzzle in the game engine.

- Chris

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Building a Puzzle | Pt 1 - Asset Creation

Over a series of three posts, we will guide you through process of building a puzzle for our game, from start to finish. Today, we are going to go through creating the assets for the puzzle. 

But first, let’s outline the intended puzzle. 

A player is directed to a puzzle screen in which there's a big constellation that forms a picture. The player can remove stars from the constellation, and they need to pick the right ones to remove so that a second picture, hidden in the first, is revealed. 

Here is a small prototype we created:

Drawing the Main Assets

First up, we need to sketch the main image that will be revealed through completion of the puzzle. Eden Falls features plenty of symbolic imagery, animals of the forest being one of them. After sketching out a concept, I use the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to create the desired shape. As this will be an image seen to a player in the starry night sky, the shape outline is set to white with no fill. I also added a glow effect to the asset by adding an outer glow feature (effects > stylise > outer glow).

Star Puzzle Piece

Whilst we were brainstorming puzzle ideas and prototyping possible solutions, we designed several prototype stars. After some research and reiterations, we finally settled on using triangles to represent stars in the night style, in keeping with our low poly style. In later stages, we will be creating a custom brush in Photoshop for smaller stars that feature in the background. But for now, again using the same pen tool, I created a triangle shape in Illustrator and added the same glow effect used on the deer. This vector will become a key puzzle piece in the game that we can duplicate later on in the game engine. 

Background features

Our background for the puzzle uses a variety of layers. After finalizing a colour scheme, we created a simple gradient in Adobe Photoshop, putting the brighter colour at the bottom of the screen to give the illusion of a horizon/setting sun. Choosing the lightest colour from my palette and a cloud brush effect, I added some small clouds to the edges of my canvas to create some noise and variation on the canvas.

Creating a Custom Brush

To complete the background scene, we need scattered stars in the night sky. Unfortunately, there is no existing tool to do this, but we can create our own custom brush. Starting with a simple triangle shape, set the spacing in brush tip shape to 400%. Under shape dynamics, set the angle jitter to 100% and under scattering set count jitter to 100%. Selecting the blending options of the layer, I also select an outer glow to create the twinkling effect.

Mock Up

To test how these assets compliment each other and to prototype the UI, I created a mock-up. Playing around with placement of assets and laying out the UI will help create a visual guide of how this puzzle should look in the game engine.

And now we are ready to move the assets into Unity!

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post in which Chris will outline the programming behind our example puzzle. 

- Ruth

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In case you mist it, fog has now been added to the game.

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Dev Blog 5

Comic Con demo and feedback!

A huge thank you to everyone who checked our game at Dublin Comic Con. We got to talk to a lot of you in person and it was wonderful to hear all of your feedback. We are hard at work implementing changes and bug stamping, so again, thanks to all who stopped by. 

What are we up to right now?

Our biggest focus of the last month has been art; allowing players to go inside the buildings means those buildings need to be furnished. From previous testing sessions, we know that players have a strong desire to feel more connected with the world of Eden Falls and to explore the town with as few limitations as possible!

Shiny new content!

In between churning out beds, bookcases and toilets, we also managed to code the first 4 puzzles in the game. These have been a little different to the rest of the code; we usually try to write code that is re-usable as much as possible, and covers a variety of scenarios. Following this approach would make for bad puzzles however, if they all relied on the same code they’d all play the same way.

The solution was to write one-shot scripts for each puzzle. Each puzzle has a single script covering every aspect of it, which is activated at the appropriate time and then destroyed when the player has solved the puzzle. A single number tracks the player’s position in the game, every time they make significant progress it increases so we know which scripts should be active. As a bonus, we can also use this number for the dialogue system, to decide what each NPC should be saying at a given time.

Clean and Functional UI

As we develop Eden Falls, we are constantly building and adding to our game. This in essence also means that we tend to reiterate our UI features quite often, to produce an efficient, functional and complimentary UI system. Therefore, over the space of the last month, we have been hard at work reformulating how to present information to our players for a seamless and immersive experience.

Here are some small examples of user interface that has changed or gained functionality since the last build:

Clear(er) indicators within puzzle/challenges:

Refined selection indicators:

Functional option menus:

Progress and Plans

So what are our plans going forward into the last weeks of development?

Our next technical task will be the save system. We plan to auto-save the game whenever the player sleeps, so we need to work out everything that will go into the save file and retrieve it from the manager and puzzle scripts at that time.

With 2/3 of the game’s content finished, the end is nigh. 

Be sure to follow this blog and social media for all updates!

- Team Eden Falls.

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You wanted to enter buildings?

Well you can’t handle entering buildings!

No, but really, we’re getting there!

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Dev Blog 4: Demo Feedback

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for team Eden Falls! Testing and feedback has been our main focus for the past two weeks. Over 200 of you (!) downloaded our small demo and gave us your feedback. Thank you to everyone who participated in this first stage of testing, we are now hard at work at fixing those pesky bugs and taking your suggestions on board. 

Besides bug stomping, we have been hard at work building and developing our game world. Progress includes: 

- A brighter, dynamic central town in which a player can have longer and deeper conversations with a range of diverse NPCs. 

- An improved user interface that is not just functional, but also complementary to a player’s experience. Our intention is for the UI to seamlessly immerse itself within the game to enhance gameplay rather than hinder it. 

- Developing on existing puzzles in-game and designing new challenges for players to encounter. 

- Revisiting several iterations that testers have discussed in their feedback. Through a system of constantly prototyping new concepts and approaches to these issues, we can draw from a range of solutions. 

Progress images:

Dialogue System

Before

After 

In-game clock

Before

After

So what’s next? We are currently hard at work on building a demo for Dublin Comic Con, another great opportunity for us to receive some more feedback. Information and a link for the new demo build will be available over the space of the next couple of weeks so watch this spot!

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Eden Falls demo!

We are delighted to announce that a demo of Eden Falls is finally available to play and test.

You can download the PC/Mac/Linux build from here!

And feel free to fill out our survey form to let us know what you think!

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Welcome to Eden Falls!

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Dev blog 3: Comic con, Steam Greenlight and more.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks!

We have been hard at work prototyping new and improved aspects of our game. At present, we are on schedule to have a playable build for testers. Our predicted release date is 30/06/17, so keep an eye out for testing opportunities. 

Steam Greenlight

We are delighted to announce that we have been greenlit on Steam! Thank you to all of our supporters and followers for upvoting us. Over the next couple of months, we are sticking to our normal deadlines and pipeline process to deliver a decent and well tested game. Although being greenlit may provide us with the temptation to rush production, this is not our intention.

Music production

Choice of audio, sound effects and music in a video game is often a choice that can define the tone of a project. As neither of us on Team Eden Falls have extensive knowledge or experience with creating audio experiences, we have discussed and debated outsourcing certain aspects of audio creation. At present we are in talks with a skilled individual, experienced in audio production. Although we can’t say much right now as we are still in preliminary talks, this is a collaboration we are extremely excited about. More information to come when details are finalised.

Dublin Comic Con

Our second big announcement for this blog post is that we will be demoing Eden Falls at Dublin Comic Con! This is a huge opportunity for us and we’re so pleased that we were amongst the indie game devs to be chosen to demo our game.

Dublin Comic Con will be held in Dublin’s Convention Centre on the 12th and 13th of August. Come find us in the Liffey Suite 2a/b on the first floor (to the left of the main hall) and be sure to say hi and demo Eden Falls in person.

Aaaand that about wraps it up for this dev blog. We are still hard at work, on schedule for our first build release so make sure to keep up with this blog and our social media links for links to play and test.

Until next time!

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Dev blog 2: We are very puzzled.

Puzzle Creation

This week, we have been focusing on our puzzle development and integrating progress elements into gameplay. As Eden Falls will be a game that seeks to tell a story, we endeavour to find dynamic ways of telling a story without compromising on gameplay. This is very much a work in progress but we are experimenting with using game space, colour shifting and sound to integrate puzzles and/or demonstrate progress. Watch this space!

Here are some great readings for any of you interested in puzzles within digital games:

What is a Puzzle? by Scott Kim

Designing and Integrating Puzzles in Action-Adventure Games by Pascal Luban

Time Systems

The town of Eden Falls now has street lights, which presented a problem to us. Turning on Xander’s head torch from the TimeManager script was one thing, but with 6 more lights in the level and more planned, we needed a more efficient system. Unity’s event system turned out to be the key; after following this tutorial we were able to add an event called Nightfall, which the TimeManager triggers at 7:30 every evening. We then added a script to each light source, which enables the appropriate lights whenever Nightfall occurs. Going forward, we’ll add more events triggered at different times of day, allowing us to tell the AI characters to move around the town, or trigger changes in the forest. We’ll also expand the script that enables the lights, so we can have lights randomly turn on and off in the houses when they’re occupied.

We are working very hard on having a playable alpha build by the end of June so make sure to follow this blog for upcoming links and news on testing.

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The first of many weekly game dev blogs: Hello!

This weeks updates are as following:

- Integrating more user interface (UI) into the build including a fully working menu system

- Refinement of our dialogue system to allow for multiple characters

- Two new character 3d models have been added to the game

Here is our trailer for our Steam Greenlight page in which you can see our new dialogue systems at work.

Now that we have a core loop and a basic build, the next couple of weeks will be dedicated to expanding Eden Falls within the scope of our brief. For us this means, creating/adding further artefacts, dialogues and characters and constantly improving our map. As Eden Falls will have a heavy emphasis on exploration, we are also in the process of prototyping several different progression paths so a player does not simply wander around aimlessly or get completely lost. 

We are still on track to creating a playable (and testable) build for mid-late June. Follow this dev blog or any of our social media pages to keep posted about QA/testing dates. 

Until then, stay tuned!

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Hello World!

Eden Falls. An idyllic paradise, a utopia. But why do people mysteriously leave in the night? Play as newcomer Xander & unravel the dark side of paradise.

Welcome to the Eden Falls development blog. 

This is a place we will be posting major updates and news about the game, be sure to check back every now and then!

We at Eden Falls are still in the early stages of development and design for the game, but that however doesn't mean you have to wait long to play! We are aiming to have a playable alpha build ready for you guys to play by mid June.

If you would like to be the first to know, be sure to like us on facebook, follow us on twitter and keep this tumblr bookmarked, as we will post here first.