10 Week Project – Post 5 – Don't Touch the Chairs, You Filthy Casual

I was supposed to write about introducing our Knock Out feature today, but we recently decided to put that feature on hold while focusing on other things in the game. So let’s talk about something else like the visual and audible feedback from collision with furniture!

A lot of stealth games are focusing on staying in the shadows and not to be seen by the baddies. But you can, in some games, walk so close to the enemy that you can smell him, and he wouldn’t notice.

You also bump into furniture and rummage around, without them noticing. Heck, you could probably break out a small drum set and they wouldn’t bat an eye.

What I’m trying to say is that a lot of stealth games are not focusing on stealth in the sense of sounds. The only game that really comes to mind regarding that is Mark of the Ninja (which has inspired us a lot in the design process). So we thought that it would be fun making sounds a big part of the game and that it would give the game a whole new dynamic.

So to give sounds a bigger part in the game, we implemented sounds from collision with objects (furniture). This means that you will hear a screeching sound when you bump into, let’s say, a chair. By doing this, we can create environmental puzzles using furniture and not just guard placement. We can also combine the two to create even more advanced puzzles. Let’s say that you need to get to the other side of the room to fetch a key. You could either take the longer route past some guards or you could take the shorter route which is littered with furniture. You could skip the long route, which would naturally be a bit quicker. But if you would mess up and bump into something, all the guards in the vicinity would be on you really fast.

So how do we introduce this to the players and what kind of feedback should they get?

In the tutorial level, we have a small storage room which is littered with boxes and different furniture (See mock up below). We want it basically to be impossible to walk through this area without bumping into something. But won’t the noise attract the guard, you might ask? Well, we thought about that as well and that is why we placed this room in between two other rooms and these rooms are void of enemies. This means that you can bump into as many things as you want without the risk of getting caught. 

So we now have a way of introducing the properties of the furniture and it’s feedback to the players in a “safe” environment. Now we need some feedback to give to the player.

The players should already be familiar with the sound ripples emitting from them while they walk. The sound ripples should also be associated with the sounds of their footsteps. So why not use an already familiar method for the furniture!

With this, we now we have some visual feedback of large sound ripples being emitted from furniture to show the players what is causing the sound and how far that sound travels. Now all we need is some audible feedback.

To bump into furniture should be considered something bad since it could reveal your position to the guard and would break your “stealthiness”. This means that we need sounds that will portrait that sense to the player. Like a high pitch screech which would instantly give the players a sense of “Wow, I need to be careful around these tables!”

Now we are basically forcing the player to experiencing this in a closed, but safe, environment. Is that the best? What about the feedback? Is there some other way you can see that we overlooked? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

P.S. I’m sorry