Castle Conundrums

Castle Conundrums is a third-person puzzle/exploration game. The game is based on Hans Christian Andersen's story The Princess and the Pea. In this story, a princess arrives at a prince's castle. To verify that she is a real princess, the prince makes her sleep on a pile of mattresses with a pea underneath. If the princess feels the pea, she is a real princess and he can marry her.
The game takes up the idea of the princess's hypersensitivity. You play a woman who has to pass various tests in a castle using her five senses, all of which are hypersensitive. You can hear inaudible mechanisms, see objects through walls, etc.

Powers

For each power, I have two scripts:

The first is the script for an object linked to that power.
The second is the power itself and interacts with the objects linked to it.

Power objects are detected in several ways. Either they give their reference to their respective power when the scene is launched, or they are detected via collision boxes.

Once the player wants to activate a power, it will use the references of all objects linked to that power in order to execute the mechanics.

For example, when the player activates their hearing power, the game first modifies the audio settings. The default sounds are then muted. However, the player can now hear sounds that they couldn't hear before, including the sound of the hearing power object closest to them.

Since video games are primarily visual, I also display an element on the user interface. The opacity of this element changes depending on how close the player is to the object.

For accessibility reasons, I also use controller vibrations to indicate the position of the object. The vibrations are felt in the direction of the object relative to the player, and their intensity also depends on the player's distance from the object.

Since all gameplay is based on the character's powers, I started there: I created my character's basic movements, then developed their powers.

With only a few weeks to create a prototype, I decided to develop only three of the five senses: sight, hearing, and touch.

They couldn't just be basic senses, they had to be “super senses.”

So I decided that sight would allow the character to see objects through walls, hearing would allow them to hear inaudible sounds, and touch would allow them to reach/touch inaccessible areas.

Level Design

I designed the castle level so that it uses all three powers at once. At the back of the room is a guard who serves as a tutorial. When you talk to him, he introduces the player to the power system and how to use it.

In the room, there is a mannequin and a platform with a large key behind a gate.

There are no traps in this room. The goal is for the player to familiarize themselves with the powers.

In this room, the player can use the power of sight to spot a hidden staircase in the floor.

To complete the puzzle, the player must detect a mechanism behind a wall using the power of hearing. They must then use the power of touch on the same wall to rotate it, revealing a lever. Once this lever is pulled, the hidden staircase rises from the floor. The player must then once again use their power of touch to retrieve a key from the mannequin. This key allows them to open the gate and retrieve the large key that was locked behind it.

The game begins outdoors on a rainy evening. This setting directly mirrors that of the story that inspired it, in which the princess also arrives at the castle on a rainy evening.

The first screen shows the player's character from behind, looking at the castle in the distance.

Here, everything indicates that the player should head towards the castle:

The castle itself, which is elevated on the hill.
The bridge lit by streetlights, marking the path to the building.
The mountains in the background, with the tree in the foreground, surrounding the castle.

The entire scene is constructed in such a way that the player is led to the castle. Behind the player is a dense forest that they cannot venture into. Their entire island is surrounded by water, as is the castle.

The location is a huge dome, giving the impression that a vast world lies beyond.