Puzzle Research

Life is Strange Puzzle Analysis
In Life is Strange, the mechanics are moving, examining, interactions like pushing and pulling, and time control. You can reverse time and undo things, but still have object permanence (once you pick something up, it stays in your inventory even if you reverse time).
In episode 4, you find yourself in an old barn and you must open a secret vault door hidden on the floor. It's too heavy and locked to lift, so you have to find another way. You climb up to the loft, and pull down an old motor to climb higher. Once you're up there, you reverse time so that the old motor is on the same level as you. The motor is attached to a rope, which is attached to a hook. You ask your friend to attach the hook to the door, and then you push the motor down, which forces the door open.
The game provides all the pieces of the puzzle pretty well by showing that they're an option using the HUD.

Everything that needs to be done is spelled out, but figuring out the order and where to go and the exploration is what excites the players and makes them feel smart. Using your time reversal to undo pulling the old engine down, and using the force of the engine to open the door are two not totally obvious solutions to the problem that make the players feel clever once they realize the solution.

So, the puzzle includes unusual use of an item (using the weight of the engine) and a sequence puzzle. For example, if you don't attach the rope to the engine and to the door, then pushing the engine off will mean nothing. 

Toy/Prop Game Design Ideas

Here are the ideas that I decided to pursue further: the super kicking boots, the cloud gun, and the shield that can catch projectiles and send them back.

From here, we're going to pick one of them to go further with.

10 Hero Prop Game Mechanic Ideas

Love Glove - Shoot Love hearts at your enemies! Make them happy and stop attacking you! You have to hug to recharge your love glove.

Laser Helmet - Fire lasers from your face! Face shield closes when firing.

Crunch Boots - destroys pieces of earth below you when you doubletap spacebar.

Drill Arms - charge at enemies! Drill them to bits! Drill through walls to reveal pathways! Connect your arm gauntlets to use.

Cannon/Launcher Backpack - see DFA character. Launch cannonballs.

Plasma Flamethrower - Throw blue fire.

Steam Machine Gun - Fill the area with steam clouds that you can jump on!

Guitar Gun - Shred on it, channel lightning, light candles/torches, turn on generators, etc.

Ricochet Shield - Return enemy attacks when timed correctly by catching energy in the shield capusle.

Pulsar Launcher - Lob pulsar grenades. Has cool capsule reload thing. Clears an area (of lava, toys, foliage) so you can walk on it.

Burger Time Re-Make

I'm going to be working with my partner, Leslie Glanville, for the next project in Programming. Together we're going to remake Burger Time in UE4 by using the Sidescroller project template.

It poses an interesting programming challenge that will involve researching how the engine interacts with players and pawns and inputs. We will need to program ladders, falling burger ingredients, basic locomotion, a basic or workaround A.I. system for the enemies, a life system and a pepper attack system. We also have a fun challenge of recreating the classic Burger Time feel, either maintaining the retro style or going for an updated look. Our asset list includes the Chef, the enemies: a sausage and an egg, ladders, burger ingredients, platforms, and salt pick-ups. If we have extra time, we may be able to incorporate some fun particle effects, such as for when the ingredient lands on the platform below.

I bet I'll have a lot of fun.

Racing HUD

We're going to design a specific HUD for our vehicle. My car is a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1, so they have a particular style. I'm probably going to try and replicate that.
Here are some photos of the style of that age.

I like the interesting colors on this one pictured above. Having the second tone to delineate mega-fast speeds is an interesting idea. 

Including details like mileage, fuel or RPM might be fun, even if I'm just going to have to fake it somehow. On the other hand, it may just confuse the player.

This is a nice and simple design. The shape of the pointy-dial thing is an important detail. The font is also very specific.

Game Trailer

We're going to be making a promo video for the level we've been working on this semester. Right now, we're doing some research on what some industry gameplay videos look like. Here's one from Need for Speed Rivals 3.




I liked it for its simplicity. It works well to show how pretty everything is and the variety of gameplay actions. The motion design in it is also really nice looking and doesn't get in the way of the actual gameplay.

Particle

A smoke particle I made for my level.