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Embers
of  Beyond

Role:  Design, Concept Art, 3D Art, Tech

Genre:  3D platformer · Narrative Puzzle
Engine:  Unity 3D

Description

Embers of Beyond is a puzzle platformer set in a mystical ghost realm inspired by Asian folklore. Player controls a lantern-bearing girl who transforms into various characters along her journey to solve intricate environmental puzzles. As she navigates this eerie and enchanting world, she unravels its mysteries and uncovers hidden truths.

Design Process

Design Challenges

Initial idea:
I had the initial idea for this game around 2 years ago, when I just started my attempts in game design. It took me a lot of trial and error to adapt myself into a game design mindset. 

Game Mechanic:
The major mechanics went through a long progression for it to be refined and reduced to a precise mechanic with a simple enough logic for a game. In my initial design, there were two types of separate resources, one is the ember light to light the path for the player, while the other one is a one-time use talisman as the prerequisite for controlling spirit. Play tests proved two unrelated resources to be redundant and confusing. Therefore, I made the revision to connect these two portions of game play by combining the two (let the two share the same resource, this also puts more emphasis on the “ember” as an essential narrative element).

Art Challenges

Design:
The character should give the primary clue about the setting. Asian culture has very specific traditional clothing that varies in each era of history. I did research to pick out the symbolic styles to reference in my design.

concept1_edited.png
Screenshot 2024-09-24 111334_edited.jpg
character.png
ref12_edited.jpg
ref12_edited.jpg

Modeling & Assets:
I had a lot of ambition in visualizing the scenes, however they were irrelevant to graphics in Unity.  I had to alter my designs according to my ability to contrive visual effects in unity. Models are made in Blender.

firefly.png
one-time wooden.png
basket.png
bamboo.png
fence_edited.png
Screenshot 2024-09-24 110843_edited.jpg

Tech Challenges

AI Finite State Machine:
The core game mechanic is closely related to NPC spirits found in the game. These "living" characters required writing a few AI state machines. I was relatively new to C#, so the repetition of writing a few variations was a great learning process for me.
Breaking actions into distinct states like Idle, Cut, Walk (and etc.) ensures modular and scalable AI behavior across different characters. Each character’s state transitions are handled based on timers, conditions, or random choices.

  • State Enum: Defines each character’s possible states (e.g., Idle, Walk, Sit).

  • State Functions: Each function (e.g., State Idle, State Cut) manages a specific behavior.

  • Transitions: Controlled in FSM(), enabling smooth shifts between states based on predefined triggers.​

Lumberjack

lumberjack cut.png

Player interactable detector

Reflect & Learn

What went wrong?

As an artist, I tend to be narrative and visual focused. The converting an idea into game mechanics and expressing all narratives surrounding game-core interaction was new to me. This is my first ever complete game in Unity, and I encountered a lot of problems for the first time:

  • I did not know how to effectively plan and schedule, and without knowing the “ingredients” of a game from behind the scene point of view, I had a hard time listing the exact assets that I needed to prepare. 

  • I went on to look for/create usable assets before the development stage, and some of the assets collected were not useful.

  • My initial version of design had more than one major mechanics that confuses players.

  • I also wasn't familiar with certain functions that could be easily achieved with animation timeline without using complex code.

What I learned

  • A game can be complex, but mechanics should be straightforward for players. Combining and reusing elements is helpful in centralizing a key game mechanic.

  • A clear hierarchy is always helpful when designing core game mechanics, as I can’t fit every element in mechanics when transforming narrative elements into game mechanics. 

  • Minor narratives need to find other ways to compliment the main mechanics without any conflict in taking over too much of the game play.

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