The Winter's Tale - Research and pre-development

Before we can begin developing The Winter's Tale game, planning and preparation must be undertaken through story-writing, artistic designs, level designing, and basic mockups. We have worked on these three aspects to get an idea about what the final product will end up to be.

Game mockup

As part of learning Unity, I created an interactive mockup of the game using pre-made assets of Unity. This was done to provide an understanding of how the game was going to play, and to experiment with the AI, run speeds, camera placement, and level design with invisible walls.

The game is set at a top-facing view with the player running towards the camera as it moves back. It increases the unpredictability of the game where the player can not properly see what's ahead, and must use quick reflexes to avoid obstacles.

Game mockup created by me.

Video footage of mockup.

(Watch in 720p to view in 60fps.)

Level design

Level designer Zach designed two levels for the game based on the bear events in the play. One was a beach environment which is more to help players understand the controls and mechanics, and the other was a forest which has a higher difficulty and multiple paths to choose from.

We intend to increase the replay value by encouraging the player to try different approaches like collecting more coins/jewels, and complete the levels in a faster time. While the primary goal is to outrun the bear, there will be collectible pickups consisting of gold, jewels, and power-ups that will be scattered throughout the levels. The amount collected will be indicated at the top of the screen as a HUD display. The amount of coins and jewels collected by the surviving end of the game will determine the ending of the story. If enough is collected, Antigonus will take care of the girl. If not, the girl will be raised by a different family. If the bear catches the player, Antigonus is killed in a cliffhanger ending, leaving the fate of the girl uncertain

The obstacles in our game will consist of the bear, rocks, logs, and tree stumps, and rivers all of which can slow or stop the player from progressing. The player should jump over rivers and slide under hanging tree trunks to avoid slowdown.

Level design by Zach Fields. Not final.

Zach also wrote up the five gaming principles we aim to apply to the game, which consist of the following in his own words:

Movement
Antigonus, the player character, can run, jump and duck to avoid obstacles that are placed in the three dimensional levels. The camera follows the bear that chases you, meaning that it steadily gets closer to the player character.
Challenge
The player must navigate through a 3D platformer level, navigating around trees, rocks and other natural obstacles to make his way to the end. All the while you are being chased by a bear who runs at a steady pace, and coming into contact with it results in an instant game over. Therefore, the challenge the player must overcome is navigating through this level as quickly as possible as to avoid the bear, with the main goal of survival.
Conflict
Antigonus has to run for his life from this bear, escaping through any means necessary.
Moral
Antigonus faces a moral dilemma: to show loyalty to his king and nation by following his orders, or to show human empathy and save their infant child? Ultimately, Antigonus does what he believes is right in protecting this child, even if it means having to face the wrath of his king.
Fun
Any good story or media experience has an element of risk and tension that the character must overcome to reach a catharsis. The threat of the bear carries an element of danger that drives the game forward, and creates a sense of urgency and heightened challenge. We aim to provide balance, making sure mistakes are punished but success is rewarded.

The game's story, written by Amy, will be told through images and narrative text, similar to a picture book.

Artistic Designs

In order to get an idea of how to design the characters, we referred to images that feature various incarnations of The Winter's Tale to get an idea of what clothes they wore and their physical body appearance. For example, when researching King Leontes, we refereed to the stage portrayal performed by Ian McKellen, and for Polixenes, looked at Jonathan Firth's version of the character. These images were obtained by Zach.

Character research document by Zach Fields.

With these images collected for visual reference, Janet drew up some nice designs for each of the characters with are simplified, but appealing. We aim for simplicity to limit the amount of work required to reach realism. With the design of the bear, it looks like a mysterious black cloud, which would benefit us as we won't have to animate quad legs for it's movement animation.

Character designs by Janet Lu.

Janet also created concept art for the game's environment which gives us a good idea on the fantasy look and tone of the setting. The big challenge now is for us to translate these drawings into 3D models and animations to put into Unity.