BITTER CROPS
A Horror-Stealth Adventure
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Introduction
A 3rd person, horror-adventure game with puzzles and stealth elements inspired from games like Little Nightmares and Amnesia.
The game is set in the agricultural society of 17-1800’s Sweden, and is heavily inspired from the folklore surrounding the “tomte” (gnome).
Project details
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Developed over: 3 weeks half time
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Focus on narrative design & tension
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Whitebox (rough)
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Assets used:
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Max Template by Max Forsberg
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Dead ox mesh by Lowe Silverlyra
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SFX from Pixabay
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PROJECT SUMMARY
Player goals:
The player's goal is to rescue their bird friend and flee the farm. In order to do that, they have to retrieve the human's axe without being discovered.
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Depict victim's escape from abusive/destructive relationship through a metaphor
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Players should feel vulnerable, small, at the mercy of somebody else.
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Smart utilization of space
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Create tension through mood
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Tell a story w/o words.
My goals:
PROCESS
Pre-prod
Research, references, etc.
After having studied games like Little Nightmares 1 & 2, Amnesia, P.T., I wrote a list of moments I wanted to include. Planting traces of the enemy's activity (traps, axe, sounds) before actually revealing him, is an example of that. It's a great way of creating tension.
I made a synopsis and an act structure, and juggled these ideas with my mentor in narrative design, Alice Rendell.
To not lose track of my goals in the process, I also set up 3 main pillars to prioritize:
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narrative
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creepy, scary aesthetic
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stealth as gameplay
Blockout
Finding scale, composition, etc.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay includes hiding from enemies, keys & obstacles, and platforming.
The environment plays a key role; players must rely on it for stealth and solving puzzles, such as pushing boxes or jumping from heights in order to break something. Being so small, climbing furniture turns into its own little platforming adventure as well!
STORY & TENSION
Added plot points.
A story arch showing the mayor plot points of the game.
Added plot points.
Though I learned a lot from my reference games, my two main take-aways on how they built mood and tension are:
1. By taking advantage of the player's senses, these games make players fantasies run wild. Hearing heavy steps on the floor beneath; a blood smear leading towards the goal... It's quite seldom about the game posing an actual "threat".
2. Use our innate fear of the unknown as long as possible.
LEVEL WALKTHROUGH
Going through the different acts step by step, talking about the level- and narrative design.
ACT I
For Act I I wanted to set the mood & establish the end goal.
1. GARDEN
First thing players see is a picture of themselves and the bird companion.
To further highlight our end goal and its location, I used e.g. composition, movement and sound (crow caws).
The house being located on a higher point, forcing us to climb towards it, avoiding bloodied traps and skulking cats, etc. all serve to remind us of our vulnerability and planting thoughts of who we're facing.
I wanted the environment to look cozy at first glance, only to hide something sinister - much like the facade often kept in abusive relationships.
Utilizing both soft and hard reveals, one such example is the (hidden) hanged farmhand, whose shadow we see first on the trail.
2. ENTERING THE HOUSE
When entering the house, players have an instant momentum towards the attic - another push towards our end goal.
I placed the axe, serving as a chekov's gun, in an unusual place, making it stand out (as opposed to, say, by the firewood).
I also solidify the human presence with shadows and - while we encounter our first plot point (the attic being boarded up) - sounds of heavy steps below us, signaling the enemy moving to the cellar.
Shows last half of Act I (and beginning of Act II)
ACT II
For Act II I wanted to increase action and tension.
3. BREAKING THE HATCH
Having established we need something to break the boards blocking our entrance to the attic, players descend again to the ground floor. Unfortunately, the axe is now gone!
There are several clues hinting at the human's location - hatch is now unlocked, lights through the floorboards, and a strange, tearing sound coming from below...
Players can break the hatch by jumping from a certain height, and they'll have to climb, vault and jump across furniture in order to get up there.
This moment's also a reminder of how small you are compared to the enemy and their home, making it obvious you’re playing in someone else’s “arena”.
4. STEALTH PAST ENEMY
Falling through the hatch lunges us right into a high-stress moment where we have to hide quickly. For the first time, we get a proper view of our enemy.
Strenghtening the sense of open areas = unsafe, we're forced to stealth our way through the cellar while the human's looking for us.
5. SIMPLE BOX PUZZLE
Entering a small sideroom, we'll first have to solve a simple puzzle where we push the small box (upper right) towards the big one (lower left) in order to reach the axe (plot point 2).
The door closes behind us, forcing us to find an alternate route back in the shape of the roof beams.
6. THE WAY BACK
We'll now get another view of the area we just traversed, and a gruesome reveal of what awaits us if we don't make it, further raising the stakes. Is this the victim of the trap out in the garden?
With more time, I would've had the human hold the axe in the basement, and the puzzle (see 5!) instead consist of players needing to lure him into the smaller room (where the axe is currently located) and then hurriedly jump and climb in order to get the axe before he comes back. I feel like that could add more stress and disgust, forcing the player to get close to the dead victim.
Shows last half of Act I (and beginning of Act II)
Shows last half of Act I (and beginning of Act II)
ACT III
Act III is all about the climax and ending.
7. OBSTACLE CLEARED!
Using the axe we can finally remove those pesky boards!
Unfortunately, the noise attracts the human, leading us straight into the...
CLIMAX!
Tension is driven to its highest point through an intense chase which includes running, sliding and climbing. Our weakness now becomes our strength!
At the end, we can finally free our bird companion and a cutscene rewards the player with a view of us soaring through the air, leaving the cursed farm far behind.
ISSUES & SOLUTIONS
Chekov's gun
End result after iterations.
Placed the axe w. the firewood.
Placing it on the bed yielded good results, but it could do a little better...
End result after iterations.
Issue:
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Players needed to notice the axe before realizing they actually need it to proceed.
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I'd first placed it on firewood, on the floor, etc.
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Players became confused as to what "tool" they needed in order to break the boards in the attic.
Solution:
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I realized the previous places were too "expected" for the axe to be in.
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By placing the axe in the bed next to a corpse, it's an unusual position which lures the eye
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Players can spot it instantly before even entering the house
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Limiting "noise" of the rest of the room and placing a chair facing towards the axe
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Breaking the hatch
The initial plan was for players to jump 3 times on the hatch. The grandfather clock was supposed to merely drag attention towards the hatch area.
I still use the clock as a lure (and a little slide!), but now players will jump from the chest of drawers.
Issue:
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Players understood they should go through the hatch OR climb on the furniture, but didn't connect that you had to jump from that height - it wasn't intuitive and probably felt scary
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This led to confusion, losing sight of goal
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I needed to find a solution without compromising the "surprise" of falling through and having to hide
Solution:
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Lowered the height from which players jump
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Placed a beam w. lock above the hatch, which moves to the side after human's gone down there
Note: this worked out - however, if it wouldn't have been "enough", I would've placed an object they could push to fall down on the hatch, breaking the boards before jumping down themselves.
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Closing thoughts
My goal with this piece was to tell a story without words and making the player feel unwelcome, small, and unsafe. Judging from playtests, I feel like I managed to capture a lot of those tension building moments that are so important in horror games, and that makes me very proud.
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I lost a lot of my allotted time with this project and unfortunately had to cut a lot of things which I feel would've made it even better. One example is the expanded axe puzzle mentioned in the level walkthrough (see "6. THE WAY BACK"!).
If I had more time in general, I'd love to let the player move inside walls and perhaps construct nifty little devices to move up and down heights á la Ghibli's "The Secret World of Arrietty" (2010)!
That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed delving deeper into 3 of my biggest passions: narrative, folklore and horror, and this is definitely a piece I'd like to develop further in my spare time!