Production Overview
- Four months
- 400 man hours
- Two designers
- Two artists
Created over a period of just under four months and less than 400 man hours Darkest at Dusk is the result of the collaborative work of two designers and two artists. This project was the group’s first time working together as a whole and also the group’s first time working with the Unity 3D engine.
Mike Fowler – Lead Artist & Engineer
Alex Gustafson – Co-Lead Designer & Producer
Doug Miller – Co-Lead Designer & Lead Narrative Designer
Alex Schwartz – Environmental Artist
My Responsibilities as Lead Narrative Designer
- Early construction of the basic narrative
- Creating the history of a fictional ancient civilization
- Defining important events in the history of the playspace
- Constructing the backgrounds and personalities of various characters
- Writing the physical texts that the player encounters
As the Lead Narrative Designer on Darkest at Dusk I was responsible with the construction of the basic narrative, something that evolved naturally out of the desire to create an open-world game within a small enclosed space. I worked jointly with my team early on in order to facilitate a deep connection with the narrative for all members of the project. Once the basic narrative was nailed down I worked on the construction of a fictional history for the ancient civilization included in our narrative.
I also focused on important events that occurred in the playspace after the ancient civilization had gone. Within the context of the game the location is in and of itself a character, as such a history was established for the location. Characters who’s writings the player would encounter throughout the game were carefully constructed with their own back story and predominant personality traits. In addition I was responsible for the writing of the actual documents and excerpts the player encounters during the course of play.
My Responsibilities as Co-Lead Designer
- Early planning of basic concept
- Development of core mechanics
- Construction of world layout
- Communicating with the art team
- In-engine art implementation
- In-engine level design
- Creation and maintenance of up to date documentation
Working in cohort with another designer we jointly fullfilled the role of Lead Designer. Running with my original idea of creating an open world game within an enclosed space we focused on the idea of boundaries and came to a decision on the game setting and world overview. We worked jointly on the core mechanics and the construction of the world layout, at every step of the way working alongside the art team to construct detailed asset lists and milestones for the project. I also worked on the implementation of the art within the game world, laying out environmental assets.
In addition to my shared responsibilities of lead designer I was in charge of the creation and maintenance of detailed documentation. This primarily concerns the game design document itself which was created in conjunction with the narrative design document in a wiki format. Throughout the production cycle any changes that were made were documented in order to facilitate and streamline the design process.
Overview of the Game
Set in the Caatinga; a seasonally dry scrubland of South America, Darkest at Dusk is a heavily narrative-driven adventure game created in the Unity 3D engine. Gameplay primarily focuses on exploration spurred onward by the introduction of narrative pieces. The overarching design places an emphasis on free-form movement allowing the player to traverse the world as he or she sees fit. In order to maintain a focus on exploration and narrative, puzzles are primarily simple often requiring the player only arrive at the challenge with the correct item.
The game focuses on three intertwined narrative structures from three different time periods; all of which take place within the game’s play space. The concept of the story falls around the cosmic event of a magnetic polar shift within the planet Earth; when the magnetism of the planet is reversed due to the planet crossing a threshold of orientation within the galaxy. In order to escape the radiation and other harmful effects the surface of the Earth and all of its inhabitants are subject to during a pole-shift, an ancient race of peoples under the guidance of a strange and powerful being constructed a device to protect a select few of their race.
Constructed from naturally occurring monopolar magnets; a resource used widely as a power source by their ancient civilization, these peoples created a perpetual motion device, a dynamo capable of emulating the same processes that occur within the core of the earth, thus creating a magnetosphere capable of providing protection from the cosmic forces which the rest of Earth found itself subject to. The player finds themselves unknowingly trapped in this area during the third pole shift that has occurred since the dynamo’s construction.
The feeling of entrapment is exacerbated by the lack of any human contact and the presence of the secretive ancient being who has since developed a strong distaste for humans. By piecing together scattered bits of disjointed information left behind by those that lived there during the second pole shift just after the turn of the millennium as well as translating texts and information left behind by the ancients that lived there during the first pole shift, the player discovers their prison is in fact a paradise.