Shade And
Stone
A small stealth game made for our 'Major Production' end of year assignment while at AIE.
After their grandmother fell ill with an unknown ailment, Koshaw set out on a journey for an ancient talisman, said to have amazing healing abilities. With their ability to transfigure into that of a small rat, Koshaw evades any dangers set before them.
After weeks of searching, Koshaw had finally found the temple in which where the talisman lay.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Level Designer
As the Level Designer for this project, it was important to remember at all times the different ways the player would be able to manouver the environment around them.
Whether it be as Koshaw, 'Rat'ten or by non stop dashing, everything had to be considered.
This meant colliders had to be throoughly tested, ramps had to be kept a minimum, and gaps between buildings had to be consistent.
All of this while maintaing the 'Ancient City' aesthetic.
Prototype Developer
Alongside the project I was asked to develop a prototype for the game. This meant recreating the games mechanics and environments (to an extent) in another engine to help simulate scenarios we as developers were likely to run into later on in production.
Release Info
December 10th 2022
GENRE
3D, Stealth
PLATFORM
PC
Team Members & Duration
13 Students | 14 weeks
Tools Used
Unity, Photoshop, Maya
An areial perspective of the first level draft.
An areial perspective of the second level draft.
Features
Unique Gameplay
Passionately Crafted Models
Beautiful Sound Design
Rats
Carefully Constructed Cinematics
LEVEL DESIGN
Miscellaneous
PROJECT EVALUATION
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Everyone maintained a healthy Work-Life relationship, leading to good morale.
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Problems people had were voiced appropriately
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'Rush Hour' presentations always went well, allowing us to always get the most helpful feedback
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Shade and Stone was going to have more horror elements, such as a creepier ambience, fear inducing mechanics and slight body horror.
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This decision did not go through as we as a group discussed how it would alter the dynamic of the game. We concluded it while it would amplify the importance of the stealth side of the game, it would in a sense take away it's spotlight.
So in the end, we did our best to achieve our goals, but with more suspense, thriller vibes rather than staight up horror.
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The player was originally only going to be able to both take their rat form and use their (cut) invisibility cloak, however at the cost of mana. This mana was not going to regenerate until the player reached a checkpoint.
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Player testing proved that this made the game harder than it needed to be, and without proper balancing, could lead to being put in impossible scenarios. The invisibility cloak was removed due to it making certain parts of the games level too easy, and with the cloak gone, it didnt leave much need for the mana mechanic, so i was removed too.
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It was originally going to be that the player would obtain the 'Ratify' ability at around a quarter way through of the game. However this was changed due to different ideas the designers had.
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It was concluded that not having the 'Ratify' ability upfront would have the first few minutes of the game lacking variety, which could make players leave mid-game. The games lore also did not make sense at the time with Koshaw beginning his quest without the 'Ratify' ability. Instead we decided on an unnamed rat that would guide the player through the first few parts of the Temple.