PLAYTROUGH
Insomnia
This game was created as part of a student project at Hof University of Applied Sciences. Game idea by Lukas Fritsch. Concept, design and implementation by Alexander Listl and Lukas Fritsch. Theme by Benjamin Deufel.
My tasks were the following:
- Concept, development and implementation of the game world.
- Implementation of the jump animation.
- Creating the prototype in Unity2D with level design, core gameplay elements and animations.
- Planning and implementation of the cutscene. Creating the assets, animations, music and editing.
- Planning and execution of the playtests.
High Concept
A dark puzzle jump and run in which the player gradually comes to terms with the protagonist’s traumatic past. He is confronted with his innermost childhood fears to finally overcome them and find peace.
Gameplay
The player must memorize a jump passage over a chasm to then execute it without a direct view of the platforms.
He works his way from section to section to finally advance to a boss enemy that must be defeated to continue seeing story elements. Along the way, he finds useful items and gadgets that make his progress easier.
Overcoming the main character’s fears will let him emerge stronger and stronger from each confrontation.
The full High Concept is available here:
Game World
Area#1
Start-Area Playroom
Physical Characteristics
A furnished children’s room with a mirror, bed, clothes rail, hat rack, etc. in which all the equipment is located. A large closet is the exit, with which you can enter the desired level.
Area#2
Oversized environment with cabinet elements.
Clothes rods, clothes, screws, boards, etc..
Consisting of old wood.
rotten, patched
Physical Characteristics
Light bulb burns for the first 10 seconds, then burns out.
With the light on, the room is bright and cozy, without it gloomy and colorless.
There are threads and hangers to swing and climb on.
Protruding nails hurt our character.
Sloping platforms can be slid down or must be climbed with a running start.
Area#3
Look of an old facade and old fabric of an old house.
The area is located inside walls.
It is characterized by pipes, wiring and spider webs with short sections inside rooms, or even outside the facade.
Physical Characteristics
Light for the first 10 seconds, then there is darkness.
With light the room is bright and cozy, without light gloomy and colorless.
Cobwebs / cables to climb and swing.
Area#4
Forest environment.
Gloomy, ghostly and foggy.
Wood and forest elements, branches, leaves, bugs etc.
Also all oversized.
Partially inside trees.
Physical Characteristics
10 seconds of light (by glow worm) after that only the player and his immediate surroundings are illuminated, then darkness follows.
There are leaves or plants that allow a higher jump.
Slippery places covered with moss.
Dangerous plant that injure the player.
Area#5
Twisted, urban environment.
Player moves along the roofs, windowsills and balconies.
Old, grotesque houses overgrown with ivy, crumbling plaster and stucco decorations.
Starry sky as background.
Physical Characteristics
10 seconds of light from a street lamp, after which it burns out.
Cables and clotheslines to swing and climb.
Sections where you have to hide from a bird.
Illuminated windows provide light.
Narrow ledges where our character must advance slowly and pressed against the wall.
First Scribbles
Character Design
Main Character
First Scribbles
Description
Character#1
Main Character
Backstory
12 year old boy/girl.
Traumatized by a car accident in his/her past in which his/her parents died, he/she can no longer sleep.
Wild and creepy night fantasies frighten this character. He/she must conquer these to overcome his/her trauma and be able to sleep.
Personality
Sweet, innocent, very childlike, sad, scared.
But becomes more and more courageous and happy in the course of the game.
Physical Characteristics
Childlike shaped head with eye rings
Indicated fingers
Everything except sweater is in shades of gray.
Wears shoes, pants and sweater
Sweater with color accent
Possibility to wear different hats, backpacks and a hand gadget
Animation
Childlike shaped head with eye rings
Indicated fingers
Everything except sweater is in shades of gray.
Wears shoes, pants and sweater
Sweater with color accent
Possibility to wear different hats, backpacks and a hand gadget
Special Abilities
Wall jump, jump, climb, swing
Relevance to Game Story
Protagonist
Entwicklungsstadien des Protagonisten
Animationen
Ghost
Enemie
Player dies on contact.
„Guards“ certain areas or follows the player through the level.
Ignores walls.
Cutscene
Cutscene
As an assignment for this study work, we also had to plan and work out a cutscene.
We decided to shed some light on the background story of our main character.
One of the things that keeps him awake at night is the tragic car accident of his parents, which he survived by luck. His parents, however, did not.
Sprecher: Anna Müller (Mutter), Lukas Fritsch (Vater)
Screenplay
Blackscreen
Voices, as if from a memory
Father:
Bad enough uprooting our family and now our house is such a dump!
Mother:
It’s only for 2 years and I’ll never get a chance like this again!
Father:
And what about our boy? He hardly sleeps and has it hard enough as it is!
You know what he’s like!
Mother:
Stop it!
Oh now suddenly you’re interested in your son!
Father:
Watch out!!!
screeching tires, loud clattering then silence.
A car accident has just happened
Sad music starts
Fade in
The scene of the accident appears: a meadow with a tree on which a destroyed car is smashed.
Out of the driver’s window you can still see an arm hanging, which is bleeding.
In the background: starry sky
Main character enters the scene
Main character stops for a moment and sees the destroyed car
He moves towards it, falls on his knees and cries.
Zoom in on the boy.
Fade out
Title screen
-END-
Storyboard
Sounddesign
Parents‘ dialogue (Available) the player hears an argument between the protagonist’s parents, the voices are reverberated to create the feeling that this argument is a memory
Tire squeal (Available) after the dialogue a short tire squeal is played, serves to clarify the beginning of the accident
Accident (Available) after the tire squeal an accident sound is played, lets the player guess that a serious car accident has happened
Running / falling on grass ( Available), the protagonist runs on grass to the scene of the accident and falls on his knees
Blood dripping (Available) to represent that the protagonist’s parents have died, the player sees blood dripping from the car
GUI
Title Screen
Main and Pause Menu
There is no „classic“ main menu. Instead, objects around the player light up as soon as he presses the menu button. „Hovering the mouse over one of these objects will display a text that tells what action is triggered by clicking that object.
HUD
Minimal HUD
Battery indicator for the charges of the flashlight
Remaining lives at the top left of the image → „Heads of the character“.
Flow Chart
Start Menu, Load Game, Load Screen, Settings, Controls, Contributors, Pause Menu, GameOver Screen
Playtest
Testing
A total of five playtests were conducted. The testers were friends and relatives of the developers.
Two of the testers had no experience with 2D platformers before the test, as they had rather little interest in the genre or gaming at all.
The other testers had already had several experiences with this type of game. These included, for example, the games: Mario, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Terraria, StickFight, and Broforce.
These games were mostly used on the Steam gaming platform.
Overall, the testers are interested in games of any difficulty, as long as that difficulty fits the atmosphere.
You can see the playtest and the evaluation here:
Playtest Insomnia Auswertungsbogen Vorlage
Self-criticism
Since this prototype is a student project, there are unfortunately still some points that I would like to improve.
With my studies and my work, I unfortunately rarely get to pursue my own projects intensively, but I would still like to record my thoughts on this.
Gameplay
The character’s movements are unfortunately still a bit imprecise and should be a bit faster.
The jump feels spongy and the character should immediately lift off the ground without a build up.
With slightly larger colliders on the platforms, there would be a bit of tolerance when jumping, which would significantly improve the gameplay experience.
The hitboxes of enemies and traps needs to be adjusted. Right now, it can happen that the player dies even though he hasn’t touched the enemy/trap yet.
Sounds
The sounds are mostly not completely homemade and the ghost sound needs to be creepier.
Also the footsteps should be a bit more subtle and less echoing.
Animations
The walking animation seems a bit strange, as the character gets down on his knees. I would completely rework this again.
The build up of the jump animation is too long.
General look:
Many assets should be rebuilt to give the game a nicer and more coherent look.
Kontakt
-
Lukas Fritsch
12161 Berlin - gd@fritsch-lukas.de
Social Networks
Lukas Fritsch
Game Design
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