Dresden Files: Skyline
Timeframe: 5 Weeks
Role: Level Designer and Event System Programmer
Tools: Unity, Visual Studio
Skills: C#
A 3D Murder Mystery game built in Unity and set in the Dresden Files universe. Players are able
to search multiple open scenes for any clues that will help them decifer the strange unexplained
murder before them. Then, speak with the suspects to see every side of the story and piece together
what really happened. This was a group project and my contribution was mainly the level design, the
sequencing of the series of events, and some of the functionality of interacting with clues and
tracking the players' interactions.
I created all of the levels by compositing free 3D models from the Unity Asset Store and online that
I thought fit the Dresden Files universe shown in their comics. I also utilized a cell-shaded shader
with large black outlines to give the game even more of a comic-book feel. In both of the scenes where
the player has the chance to find clues, finding the clues is optional but the end of the game features
a quiz which will test how well you know what events actually took place in the story. There are some
clues that will have a different text blurb depending on if certain other clues have been found, and
once all the clues in a room have been found the game will then prompt the player to leave.
The game follows a story, written by one of my teammates, which has a lot of events and things that change
within the scenes as you progress. Depending on where you are in the game, different clues are available and
different dialogue will happen with the other characters. I made sure the game had the proper flow of events
as well as programming the full dialogue system along with creating its animations.
- Challenges:
- Fitting all the content we wanted to put into the game within the limited time frame.
- Setting up all of the clues so that the player can inspect them.
- Designing the 2 office rooms so they look lived in and have personality.
- Implementing changes to the scenes when the player returns to them later in the game.
- What I did well:
- Created levels that fit the aesthetic of the Dresden Files and look like they could be in a comic book.
- Added scene transition and dialogue animations for a more polished feel.
- Accounted for all posibilities of the order and number of clues found.
- What I would change/improve:
- Add more scenes for the player to figure out some of the more minute details of the plot that is currently meant to be surmised.
- Implement additional clues that are either red herrings or don't have too much significance so the mystery is not so straightforward to figure out.
- Add more characters into the story and give the character models more life with animations.