SabreCSG Level Design Tool Initial Thoughts / Early Review

Available for download here - http://github.com/sabresaurus/SabreCSG

“SabreCSG is a set of level design tools for building complex levels quickly inside Unity. Using Constructive Solid Geometry techniques SabreCSG allows you to add and subtract brushes to create great levels without needing to understand 3D art packages.

With a spatial focused workflow you can also easily rearrange parts of your level without worrying about fixing topology or the underlying meshes, allowing you to focus on making the game space fun!”

Preface: I’m still a beginner in level design and I’ve not used any other level design Unity plugins so this is in no way informed by other existing tools on the Unity asset store. I do however have some basic experience in Maya and Unreal.

Game Story: NPC Dialogue Interaction with Yarn

For my second game sketch assignment I chose to develop Game Story. I looked around typically used game narrative tools such as Twine and Fungus and came across a Twine-like Unity plug-in called Yarn (thanks Robert Yang!).

As mentioned in Robert's blog, it is a plug-in for Unity that helps you write stories and to create NPC dialogue interaction. It works really well as one massive monologue or multiple pieces of dialogue.The plug-in allows you to add as many text files as you need and integrates it all into the game for you. Robert has also created a tool for Yarn users called Yarn Weaver to test and debug their text without having to implement it into Unity right away.

Subversive Play: Gone Home

For my subversive play, I chose to play the game Gone Home by Fullbright Studios. Gone Home is an adventure exploration game where the player comes back to an empty house after backpacking in Europe. Inside the house the player needs to find clues and piece together information as to why her parents and her sister have left. The game is very much driven by its narrative and has basic mechanics of picking up and moving items around in order to unlock the mystery. Finding certain items, usually letters unlocks the story in a linear manner.

I decided to subvert a game that I have already play once before because I believe that it is easier to subvert a game that you already understand. Though I would like to prove myself wrong by trying to play subversively with a game I have never played before too! In the first scene, I started picking random things from around the house and placing it by the entrance lobby. I started going deeper into the house and noticed that there were a big selection of “soft” objects such as tissues and pillows. I immediately gravitated towards such objects and started piling them on the staircase.

Game Sketch Iteration

For the game I am making for my Digital Games class, I am taking references from personal experiences and historical events and using queer theory and performance theory to think through my design challenges.

In 2001, a gang of men with baseball balls and a pool cue killed Aaron Webster in an area of Stanely Park in Vancouver frequented by gay men. Since then, numerous mysterious deaths and missing persons have occurred in Stanely Park. Most recently an international student went missing and was last seen around the Stanley Park's side of the Lion's Gate Bridge. I am not claiming that these are all people who went to Stanley Park for cruising, but I am interested in the park as a site because its beauty and popularity exists in parallel with its seedier underbelly.