UNDER LINE - DEEP SEA SOLUTIONS
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Single-player
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Top-down
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20 minutes
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PC
GENRE
PUZZLE
ROLES
GAMEPLAY DESIGNER
TECHNICAL DESIGNER
PUZZLE DESIGNER
TIME
4 WEEKS
(2022)
TEAM SIZE
14
(3 DESIGNERS)
ENGINE
UNITY 2020
CONCEPT
Under Line - Deep Sea Solutions is a single-player puzzle game set in an abandoned research facility on the ocean floor. As a diver employed by Under Line Ltd, you are tasked with using your company-issued Oxygen Line Retraction Device to solve puzzles in order to retrieve a power core from deep within the facility. Remember the key to effective retraction! - “Think backwards!”.
Our team was given the theme “Chores” which we decided to interpret as menial tasks the player completes to progress through the research facility. For the diver this is just another day on the job.
CONTRIBUTION
GAMEPLAY DESIGN
Core mechanic
Puzzle components
Player movement
Control scheme
Player camera
TECHNICAL DESIGN
Puzzle functionality design
Activator/Indicator system design
Gamepad implementation
PUZZLE DESIGN
Levels 2, 3 and 5
CORE LOOP
SURVEY
Explore the puzzle elements within the level
EXECUTE
Use the retraction mechanic to solve the puzzle
PLAN
Experiment with the puzzle elements to find an optimal path
Alternating between the calm of the planning phase and the excitement of the time-sensitive execution phase creates an engaging interest curve.
PILLARS
THINK BACKWARDS
The oxygen line allows you to quickly retract along the path you walked, so you must use this to your advantage when solving puzzles, starting at the end and tracing an efficient path.
OXYGEN LINE
Using the oxygen line skillfully and efficiently should be the key to solving the game's puzzles.
ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE
The tasks undertaken by the player are all normal everyday tasks for an employee of Under Line Ltd and should feel natural for a maintenance worker to do.
GAMEPLAY DESIGN
CORE MECHANIC: OXYGEN LINE RETRACTION
The original pitch for the game was that the player would be exploring a flooded research station while attached to an oxygen line. They would have to carefully manage the line in order to be able to reach their destination.
I quickly came to the realization that this would lead to a lot of backtracking and frustration for the player when they inevitably went the wrong way, so I devised a mechanic where the player could hold a button to retract their oxygen line and be pulled back the way they came. This would significantly reduce the frustration of going the wrong way and introduced a novel way to explore.
It then became clear to me that the retraction mechanic was what we should build the gameplay around, which lead to me designing some time-based puzzle mechanics and the project ultimately pivoting to a puzzle game.
To improve the clarity of the puzzles, I decided to have the oxygen line trace the exact path the player walks without adding any physical properties to it so that it would be obvious to the player exactly how they will travel when retracting. Each oxygen line has a maximum length, so the line’s color also indicates the remaining length, going from green to red, to help the player visualize and plan their approach to the puzzle.
In the early prototyping stages of the oxygen line feature we found that testers were already reacting positively to just walking around, tracing lines and shapes. This told us we had something that people would enjoy interacting with, even without any puzzles.
(a work of art)
OXYGEN STATION
The player starts each level attached to an oxygen station at the entrance, which has a set maximum oxygen line length. In order to introduce a layer of complexity and skill to the puzzles, we made it possible to connect to other oxygen stations that we have placed in the levels.
PUZZLE COMPONENTS
UNLOCKABLES
In each level the player's goal is to unlock the Exit Door to reach the next level. In order to do that they must trigger the activators with the corresponding indicators before their timers reset.
EXIT DOOR
The Exit Door is the only way to reach the next level and only requires one Indicator to be activated.
GLITCHY DOOR
The Glitchy Door opens when activated by the corresponding Indicator, but it is malfunctioning, so it will continually open and close. This creates a timing challenge for the player when they are retracting through it as they will be stunned if they try to retract through a closed door.
INDICATORS
Each unlockable and activator features at least one indicator. They are represented by colored lights and they dictate which activators are needed to trigger an unlockable.
A successful activation.
The light stays on permanently.
A failed activation.
The light turns off.
ACTIVATORS
Each activator has up to two indicators which will start flashing when the activator is triggered. If every activator of the same color is triggered within the set time, the corresponding door will unlock. If the timer runs out before the activators are triggered, the puzzle will reset and the player will need to try again.
SWITCH
Switches are activated by using the Interact button near them and they are able to activate up to two colors.
TURBINE
Turbines are activated by passing them in the correct direction while retracting and they are able to activate one color.
ELECTRICAL PANEL
Panels are activated by placing an electric eel on them and they are able to activate up to two colors. If the activator fails to trigger the unlockable in time, the eel will travel back to its original position.
The eel is picked up/dropped by pressing the Interact button.
(my original sketch for turbines)
PLAYER MOVEMENT
The player’s turn rate was tuned to be quite low in order to promote deliberate movement and to ensure that the oxygen line’s path would be clear, without sharp turns. This movement style is supported thematically by the diver’s heavy suit and the underwater environment.
CAMERA
To ensure visual clarity of the puzzle, the camera’s perspective is top-down, tilted to give the scene depth and show off the environment. I used Cinemachine to have the camera smoothly follow and frame the player as they move around and interact with the puzzles.
At first, I tried using Cinemachine's dolly camera with a track extending to both ends of the level, but the standard follow camera ended up working better as it gave us more freedom with the dimensions of our levels.
An improvement I would have liked to make is to have the camera move slightly ahead of the player as they are retracting along the oxygen line as we found that players were often caught off-guard by obstacles or puzzle elements that quickly appear from off-screen which lead to them not being able to react in time and having to start over.
PUZZLE DESIGN
LEVELS
The game features 8 levels. Beyond designing the puzzle components, I also designed 3 levels. Here they are, with the diagrams I used to sketch them out.
LEVEL 2
This level's main purpose was to tutorialize the switch and glitchy door.
From the diagram, I decided to rotate the level to make the layout clearer in the game's camera view.
LEVEL 2
With this level I wanted to present a seemingly simple set of puzzle components that are deceptively complex when the player is required to activate them all within a short time. This level represents a bump in difficulty and most players will need to try a few methods to find the solution.
LEVEL 5
This level introduces the oxygen station, requiring the player to attach to the new oxygen line to progress further. It is also the first time the player activates more than one turbine in a single motion, which will be expanded on in future levels.
TECHNICAL DESIGN
I worked closely with the programming team and architected the implementation of the puzzle systems, both in theory and in practice.
I made the following diagrams to clarify how each component functions
and how they interact with each other.
ACTIVATORS
This schematic describes the types of Activators
and their corresponding Unlockables.
(click to view full-size)
INDICATORS
This schematic describes how Activators and Unlockables
indicate their current state.
