Mary is a young farmer girl who is infected a disease. This disease turned her into a Criocentaur, as well as corrupted her mind, trapping her between dream and reality.

This game is about how Mary slowly gains conscious and finds her way out of the lab where she was studied as a test subject.

The mechanics would be mainly puzzle solving, using Mary's special skill of vision shifting between reality and dream.

Goal: Escape from lab

Fail: Killed by enemy / choose to stay in dream

Due to LL's plot, I want the game to be about shifting between 2 worlds, one is peaceful dream where LL lives in the forest, one is reality where LL is escaping from the lab.

Or farming and lab escaping is simultaneously going on, the crops/items she gets in farm can be used in reality.

Mechanics: Moving both worlds so they collide to solve puzzle

Fail: Killed by enemy

In a way could use perspective puzzle games as puzzle reference?

Examples could include: Monument valley

Dream world: forest, with constant use of bright pink & blue vaporwave for a surreal effect

Reality: lab, mainly white, use red to decorate to hint danger and alert.

Lab: button on ceiling

1: Player in lab, move button to match(collide) tall tree

2: Shift to forest, climb tall tree

3: Shift to lab, press the button

4: Shift to forest, get off the tree, proceed

Other examples could be: collide enemy with poison mist/fire/laser, use rock to press floor button, collide door with doorless room, must match multiple puzzles simultaneously etc

As alternatives of main mechanics: could consider room with mirror (symmetry action instead of collide), shift perspective like Fran Bow

Later in game introduce a helping character & rotate perspective & a third world (?), portals to move in large scene

1: Tutorial, dream & reality

2: Increasing hallucination that effects both worlds, surreal environments

(More bright pink & blue, use pixelated vaporwave style to mimic hallucination)

3: Merging reality & dream, observing the lab environment more, e.g. more rational & logical solutions

Ending: at the gate of the lab, choose to escape or stay in dream

1. Player must exist in both worlds simultaneously, but can only interact with the top layer

2. Death in either worlds results game over - restart

3. Player must enter exists / doors (2 collided together) to complete level

4. Collision effects takes place immediately and permanently (e.g fire is put out permanently unless it is relit.)

Goal: Escape from lab

Fail: Killed by enemy / choose to stay in dream

Due to Mary's plot, I want the game to be about shifting between 2 worlds, one is peaceful dream where LL lives in the forest, one is reality where LL is escaping from the lab.

Design may be simplified in game

1. Firstly, to collide which objects together is unknown to player in each level, many objects in a scene forcing player to experiment till find the correct solution

2. Must meet multiple conditions at the same time to proceed (e.g. player can only match 3 puzzles at the same time, the last one require help form assistant / timing.

3. Limited time / being chased

4. Multiple steps in level, e.g. 2 scenes, then open 2 rooms to manage 4 scenes at the same time / collide 4 objects together

5. Limit the number of world shifts in a level

6. Judge opportunity to frequently shift worlds (e.g. doodle jump, crossy road)

shift to change world

mouse drag for world move?

F for interaction

Mary is very heavy and can't jump, therefore all paths must be layed out accurately

1. Character must exist in all worlds simultaneously (when reaches boarder, disable further world move), but can only interact with the top layer, and only collide with top layer obejcts.

   (Later has a helper as placeholder when Mary is not in room)

   
   

2. Player can select certain objects, giving them the ability to appear on top layer temporarily so it can be used for puzzle solving

   
   

3. Objects that are attached to wall / floor cannot be selected

   
   

4. Objects that can trigger dialogue have white sparkle, can be selected & dialogues have blue sparkle

   
   

5. If character is on an unstandable tile on bottom layer, character can't shift to bottom layer until character moves to a standable tile.

   
   

6. Death in either worlds results game over - restart

   
   

7. Character must enter one door to complete level

   
   

8. Collision effects takes place immediately and tempo rarely (or permanently in some cases, such as fire alarm)

There are many holy statues in levels, try to find them and pray to them, in the end something might happen.

The main concern is whether player gets it

(And whether I can design enough puzzles like that)

E.g. Could also dissect rpg maker maps into foreground / middle/ background and overlap layers from different worlds to find solutions.

Arrange

Height setting: anything that isn't tall enough will be flooded

Use a room as a shied / weapon

Tori has same origin as Mary's disease, it can see Mary's both visions.

Its goal is to collaborate with Mary to escape. In their adventure Tori can control another room for Mary, as well as providing hints to challenges ahead.

It is has a very young, immature mind, but seems to know a lot.

Right now:

Use E to shift world

Use wasd for player movement

Hold shift while moving to drag world

As you can see, I'm not good at drawing birds

For reality, colors need to be harsher and darker, such as black outline and metal colors, but lab equipment do have white color schemes.

By making a difference between color schemes, objects from another world that can be used for puzzle can be identified straight away by players.

Picture shows everything to scale to Mary, lab scientist (human) is smaller than Mary, then there is tree (dream color) and vending machine (reality color), drawn to scale

(Combine 2 notes, it says "CoME FINd mE")

2: Mary needs to get out of the door, the floor panel by the door can open it but only in fire emergency

3:Finds torch in forest, use it to activate ceiling fire alarm, lab floor panel activated, hold it to open gate

4. Use stone from forest to press floor panel, Mary leaves room, level completed

Completed dragging top world to collide key objects

Layed tiles for text scene

Designed background and characters, established color scheme

Next:

Lay out map like in Level 1 design

Interact with certain objects to make them show on top layer. (Press z) untill the next world shift

Complete level 1 design

Draw any necessary aseets

Do speech system

Layed Level 1 maps

Placed objects

Sorted text issue

Next:

Draw assets

Interaction issue

Do sequence

Do text

interaction

Player animation

Next:

Do text

Layer change

press Z to interact

Fixed selected object transparency

Shut bottom layer collider2D

Floor panel mechanic & colliding with other objects

Changed forest sprite to ideal color

Drew assets

Created dialogue system

Down shift layer effect & animation

Next:

Complete dialogue

Do fire mechanics

Object interactions

(Fire animation)

Design textbox

Redo lab maptiles

Map end bug

Completed dialogue

Done textbox (sort of)

Fixed map end bug (kind of)

Imported pixel font

Next:

SceneManager: pause things when dialogue triggers

Press X to trigger dialogue

Do fire

Object interaction

Add music

Shift + WASD to drag map

E to shift map

Z to touch object

X to start dialogue, space to continue

Right now it seems like too many keys just for the main mechanic, need play tests.

Also how to display those keys is a problem, should play more rpg games for inspiration.

Merge object to trigger new dialogue

Merge door to complete level

Level complete animation

Opening scene & animation

Pause Page

Game mechanic unclear

Clues unclear

Bugs in Z interact

Objects: forest blue/pink/purple bright and soft colors, lab normal colors

Menu and options: inspired by the tutorial note in Lv 1, menu and option UIs take the form of notes, as the ability to pause game and change settings etc are given by Tori, hence the self portrait on the corner.

Animation: note sliding into screen

Characters: pixelated but bigger canvas than sprites on map

Text: Pixel font, usually white with blue underlay

Textbox: To be decided

Decorative elements: (Mary's flower)(Tori's doodle)

Object merge to trigger new dialogue

Complete level sequence

Main screen design

Pause menu design and some buttons

Next:

Make a tutorial page

Make volume settings

Make prefabs

Design 2

UI layers, dialogue character sprite box

How to update sprite sheet

Sort of designed some concepts for future levels (well sort of)

Set up level 2

Change shift and drag layers to mouse control instead of E and shift

Next:

Finish level 2

Add pause menu sound effect

Add change world sound effect

Do volume settings

Tutorial page

Change shift and drag all to right mouse, use left click to interact button, proceed dialogue and select menus.

Draw pixel bird and cartoon bird

True ending: Mary loses the ability to shift between 2 worlds and embraces cruel reality where it is basically apocalypse out there and everyone died.

Happy ending: Mary stays in her soft, sweet dream, she will never be sad again...but where is everyone?

Religion (cult) ending: Mary chooses her cult once again, the holy goddess always has a place for her.

The steps were

(Goal: get to car)

1.Get car key from house

2.Go downstairs, landlord blocks way to car, informed need a snack to distract him

3.Go to neighbors, asked to fix her TV

4. Get empty room key from landlord's room

5. Unlock empty room to get tap

6. Use tap to fix TV antenna

7. Go back to neighbour, rewarded a pie but too hot

8. Go to landlord's room to get garden gloves

9. Get pie, use it to distract landlord

(Got to car)

Z for interact (later change this to buff or something that doesn't imply touching)

X for dialogue

Mouse left for options and menus and general UI stuff

Mouse right click for shift map layer

Mouse right hold for drag top layer

And hopefully the above don't need further adjustments

(Goal: Get to open door button in office)

(Goal2: Explore the shed)

1. Touch shed door

2. Use shed door to block the auto-guard to get into lab room

3. Use lab sample bacteria to eat up shed door

4. Enter shed door, read clues

5. Touch Shed table so it blocks auto-guard (maybe ignore this)

6. Combine shed doorless door with office door

7. (Use doorless door with vending machine to get collectable)

8. Reach office button

Need to think more obstacles

Design Level 2

Tutorial page

Main menu level selection

Bird

!! Space to restore all position

比如选中一个物体的同时，会挡住自己，或者解放一个敌人

或者在拖动同时会伤害自己/暴露自己的弱点

比如一次可以拖动多个，但是影响拖拽/切换能力

使用能力时，敌人会来追杀

Drew shed for forest

Made enemy which patrols and also chases player when player drags layer (so player needs to be more careful) (player can also plan ahead to trap enemy with furniture)

Next:

Improve 2 world setting

Add heal

Draw door sprites

Start doing Tori mechanic

Sort out layer orders

Unify tilemap styles and sorting orders

Level selection

Tutorial page (no rush considering controls are not yet fully decided)

The ideal way is to change it to:

When map set: top colliders on, all bottom off except selected

When map dragged: top colliders on, all bottom off except selected

(Mary turns 0.5 transparent if standing on unstandable)

When player wants to shift, detects if player is standing on unstandable ground, if so, can't shift; if not, can shift

(So player should check their position before changing)

Fixed Z bug

Added tori animation and movement

Set up level 3

Added switching between mary and tori

Main menu level selection

Changed UI Icons

Next:

Make level selection prettier

Make final decision on level 2 and finish it

Make tori mechainics and single room thing

Forest door collision and animation

Kind of designed 2

Changed level 2 layout a bit so now it's easier to move

Drew level design page

Wrote office door script

Pray stuff

Next:

When selected object is on bottom layer, its colliders are not suppose to be turned off, but it is turned off now, need to find that part in the script and fix it

Tidy up gridLayer script and add more notes

Enemy animation

Idol collect page

Input field and buttons

Do keycode sprite

Change enemy patrol point once the door is opened to give player more room

Z select, need to emphasize its function

(So basically since the mechanics are pretty new, gotta train players in babysitting style and a lot more specific)

(Make tutorial page compulsory at the beginning)

一个键只控制一个功能，把拖拽移动到键盘键而不是鼠标

Make drag another key button such as shift （fixed)

一旦理解了这个机制就很合理了

（笔记可以被火烧掉，最好提醒玩家不要这样)

Level clear thing, how did that happen? (fixed)

Note: make it more obvious that it can be put together

Drag world!!! Make it more understandable!!!

Fire collider smaller

Make unstandable thing a status in Ui so player can see right away that you need to move somewhere else (fixed)

In general, once player gets it they like the idea, just gotta make controls more tutorialised

Players learn pretty quickly, especially JRPG puzzle game players

Players don't tend to go overbound that much and once unstandable tile is introduced, they try to stay on tile

如果总用同样的解密思路会无聊

Some do, but NEVER read the last page of the dialogue (so don't put key info there)

Some don't and some do get the meaning of sparkles, but once I tell them, they do

Players are pretty tolerant with the changing system, they don't get frustrated with unstandable tiles.

Hopefully won't change key settings again!

把第二关的门做了出来

学会了删除list成员

修改第一关的门按钮

第一关的clear

改了tutoiral UI

改了按键

Next:

接下来修改敌人

做密码

ui layer order (done)

lv2 detect standable bug (done)

Can't restore original position (avoided)

Pink: dialogue + can be buffed (Mary's color)

Yellow: dialogue + special interaction

Later may add a blue one for Tori's buff

Password on floors

At the moment the problem is enemies

The current idea is the add a new enemy(enemy 2), they don't teleport Mary to the beginning, but would reduce sanity

(add this after finish adding enemy 2 if needed)

Mary has an original maximum sanity count of 100

every time she uses shift world, sanity -5

when touched by enemy1, sanity -25

when pray to idle, collectable + 1, but reduces sanity maximum by 20

when in lab world, san recovers 0.1/frame

when in forest world, san recover 5/frame

(so player will learn to go to forest when being hit)

Sanity Ui is displayed as this ring of flower, as sanity decreases more flowers will block screen, therefore must recover soon

currently thinking enemies should be like flower head slender man body monsters

This game is also a pixel puzzle game set in a science lab, but there texture looks so much more sophisticated, maybe it's because of the lightings, so I think adding lightings could be a big step for improving game aesthetic

If enemy has collider, when player switches layer, enemy is very likely to get stuck in walls

So the solution at the moment is to not have collider (only trigger), and only appear on lab layer, also it chases player when dragging map whether it is on Ftop or not.

When enemy touches player, player exits dragging map state, san -20, player returns to starting position.

Tori:

Player can only control either mary or tori at the same time, so no both dragging map issue

At the moment tori's room is on top layer, and not included in gridLayer shift script, but this results tori's room will abruptly appear on both maps and it looks strange

So, tori's room will now be included in gridLater shift script, but it is drawn on a different maptile, so when mary is dragging, it will move with map, when tori is in room, it won't move with map

Also Tori at the moment does not have collider either since it can fly across many objects, but this could be a trouble as it is not bound within playable range

Another issue is tori's room collider, like other rooms it must have a boundary collider, which means it can't go over its parent layer bounds, i.e. only move within mary's walking range, so that mary can walk on it

I hope this makes sense for players

Lv 3

Lv 4 sprite drawing

Lv 4 design

Tori's room mechanic

Idol collection system

Sanity system

Restart button

To Do Next:

Set up level 4

Start coding based on the level design

Update dialogues

Code new enemy

Volume setting

Unify sounds

Or if no time, just wait for 2 seconds then restart the game

Set up level 4 basics

Done color panel codes

Lamp-match-fire codes

Watch audio source tutorial

Changed camera follow when switching character

Updated level 4 sprite sheet

To do before tomorrow:

Test lamp-lamp-fire （Done)

Get enemy running (Done)

Panel open door （Done)

Extra:

Enemy get destroyed when touching fire （Done)

Test the sequence (Done)

Add dialogues (Done)

Add basic colliders (Done)

See how level 3 is working

Get enemies done

Set up final level

Ask Roxanne for dialogues

Make ending cgs

Orgainse sound

Change idol collection total to 3

从今往后，她的世界不会有任何悲伤，任何危险，也。。。不会有任何人

大家都去哪里了？在偶尔清醒的片刻，小羊会这样想，但很快便再次沉湎于甜美的梦乡，不再困惑

未知的世界固然危险，但小羊已拥有了伙伴的支持，以及突破困境的勇气，她将不再留恋那个美好却虚幻的幻境

我们走吧！伙伴在前方呼唤道

她跟了上去

小羊相信，自己一定能在真实世界找回自己的家人和故乡

当然了，这多么显而易见啊，女神的目光明明一直注视着她，包容着她的一切

每向女神像前进一步，她视线中变会出现更多白色花朵，她甚至能闻到一股浓郁的花香，抚平她的不安与恐惧

在意识消失的瞬间，她似乎感受到了女神的怀抱

跟随我吧，我忠实的信徒。女神喃喃道

我们终将打造理想的世界理想的世界理想的世界理想的世界理想的世界

（文本中间加入一些乱码）

! Finish unstandable tile list (Done)

! Do hints in level 4

Do secrete room unlock （Done)

Draw ending cgs when back home

Improve idol logic

Change speech or character button

Now that switching character is also space, this will results in at the end of dialogue, when pressing space, dialogue and switching characters will both be triggered

Could consider changing character switch to "E", or change dialogue to mouse left click

Need a method that can detect when dialogue is finished

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1uFcwe1EDV/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=5d558b21a37e5dc719bd676b3cfe4784

Forest scene: Gymnopédie No.1 - Erik Satie （sped up)

Open scene: Music provided by 乌鸦Producer

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1uFcwe1EDV/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=5d558b21a37e5dc719bd676b3cfe4784

Sound effects: https://pixabay.com/

Pixel font: 小红书

Visual Studio

Aesprite

Procreate

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Photoshop

Sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8whM1GjH4w&t=413s

Scrollbar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqyi85IAJ0&t=158s

Input field:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zahrwl1125k&t=208s

Player movement animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcDaQy3wBeU&t=358s

Dialogue system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOP_G5bsySA

1d blend tree:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3CoTgOx5hY&t=183s

Import font:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV4wFb78FFs

Date across scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG5i6DL7-to

Option menu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZRKuGBG1U

Figured out how to keep the zip file under 1GB

Made asset for free merch at the showcase

Figured out how to improve fonts in unity

Changed idol collection prefab from 6 idols to 3 idols

To Do Next:

Change idol collection logic to detect each level collection statues and link that to the collection page

Change dialogue next dialogue button to left mouse

Start setting up ending scene

Start drawing ending cgs

Add videos to development log

Really, get started on enemy design!

Therefore, must consider to redraw those assets in the following order:

-Decors in background to fill in narrative details (objects that suggest an uncertain and mysterious connection between dream and reality, whether it's lab studying things from the forest (scientists are studying mary's habitat and its correlation to the infection), or machines from the lab can be seen in forest(what mary sees in lab affects her dream))

-More texts and clues

More text / clues / readable documents in both maps introducing the world, the lab, the cult, mary's home and tori

-Redraw maptiles

Lab base tiles need to be redrawn first since it's drawn as 32*32 which is clearly not detailed enough compared to other assets in game, then lab equipment, then forest decors, then slowly change the forest map color in each level as when mary gets the end, her dream slowly fades away into grayer shade

Seems like the idol collection scripts are a bigger mess than I thought, here are 2 options today:

Leave it as it is, put only collection list in the idol counter (don't destroy on load script)

Or tidy up everything, put important values all in idol counter script

1 long corridor and at the end a split between 2 pathways, 1 to reality, 1 to stay in dream

There are no puzzles in the final scene, just dialogue triggers

In this scene, all interactable objects will appear on the top layer, when interact with that object, current map changes to the according layer, representing the struggle between choosing a path

The dialogues will mainly be tori trying to convince mary to choose the real world

If player previously collected 3 idols and pray to the last one in the scene, a secrete path will reveal, leading mary to the cult ending

Built a version, it runs fine

Translated ending text, drew ending cgs (very rough very ugly), made ending scene and typewriter effect

Set up playerpref on the ending, so going to different route in level 5 triggers different ending

Drew level selection and linked buttons to load scenes

Changed swap character sprite to E, added level 4 puzzle sprites

Changed idol counter from do not destroy to playerpref, so no more worrying about 2 idol counters in the same scene

When starting a new game, idol collection progress will be erased

Connected references that needed to be connected so now no more nullreferenceexceptions

Would be better if I have an aritist or more time, but I guess this has to do for now

-Fixed level 2 forest door collider auto turn off issue (very key!!)

-Updated tori's name

-Wrote level 5 dialogue

-Renumbered idols so now the idol properly works

-Fixed level 3 panel and tori room mechanic so that properly works too

-Added collider for enemies in level 2 and 3, but not 4 cus those don't chase player

-Made sure game runs smoothly up until level 4

-Wrote draft for evaluation

To Do Tomorrow:

-Fill in level 5 decor

-Fill in level 5 dialogues

-Write evaluation in english

- Add more hints in level 4

-After adding level 5, find places to add more details hinting background stories especially about how dangerous the outside world is, so mary's fear makes more sense

-Upgrade dialogues in general

Filled in level 5 decor

Filled in level 5 dialogues

Imported enemy sprite (very rough, very ugly, but finally there is an enemy sprite)

Updated tori room hint sprite

Made lv5 idol secrete path

In level 5, tori now follows player when player is in control

Added camera control to level 5

Made tutorial page

Unified sound effects

Refurnished lv2 and lv3 forest

Changed tori's names in game

Added some hints in lv4

Fixed minor bugs

Packed files

Recorded video

To do next:

Write evaluation in english