MYTHOLOJAM 2017 (1st edition)
Team : 7
Position : Game/level designer, pitcher
Duration : 4 weeks (2017)
Available here
A first person puzzle-game, modern interpretation of the myth of Orpheus, the mythical lyrist traveling to the Greek Underworld to bring his wife Eurydice back to life.
Using Orpheus’ mesmerizing voice and lyre, the player needs to bend the environment and make their way up to Hades and Persephone’s Throne Room.
And The Stone Wept uses the idea of infusing life in the underworld through Orpheus’ voice in order to solve environmental puzzles.
We wanted to stay true with the Greek underworld authentic representation : a desolated land, where shadows of the deads wander endlessly without purpose or will.
The game is devided into 3 main area : the Ruins (3 levels), the Gardens (2 levels) and the Temple (1 level).
That’s where the player intervenes. They can gather partitions in the environment, unlocking songs, and then use those songs à la Zelda : Windwalker to activate different elements and advance further.
Scattered around the game, partitions allow the player to learn new songs. They are often the highlights of a level, their discovery being a reward unlocking new areas after a certain series of action to perform. We also wanted to anchor them in a mythological context, each partition being related to a specific Greek figure.
Player is able to look at any unlocked songs by right-click. We designed several songs necessary to finish the game, usable on three different elements:
Shadows
-Inspiration can exalt shadows. Stroke with beauty, they stop roaming and can be used to activate door-opening pressure-plate.
-Last Gasp desactivates the exalt state on shadows. They continue to wander on their pre-defined path.
Trees
-To Spring can make dead trees remember what it was to be blossoming. They attract nearby Shadows to them, that can be used to activate pressure-plate.
-To Fall stops this effet.
Statues
-To Love makes the stone-statues weep. If the right statues are activated in a specific area, they can open a door.
Great obstacles
Three songs are related to specific obstacles locking a new area and can be usable only once.
-To the Burden, represented with the figure of Sisyphus, can open a massive door allowing the player to proceed to the gardens.
-To Thirst, related to Tantalus, can lower the level off a lake blocking the way to the Palace while
-To Fear, Cerberus’ song, can open the Throne Room leading to the end of the game.
Once a player know the partition for a certain element, they can press the Lyra input. The camera centers on any activable nearby object and players needs to press the right arrow on their keyboard every time the central sphere hits the cords.
With the 6 levels we designed, we have about 40 minutes of game duration in total.
The first area, the Ruins (1, 2, 3), is solely based on the shadows mecanic. Players are blocked by fog-doors. In order to pass to the next level, they need to use their Inspiration songs on shadows to infuse them with life while the shadows are on trigger-plates.
Difficulty increases with the different pattern of shadows patrols, the need to activate and desactivate them quickly and the understanding of the plates/doors corolation.
The second area of the game, the Gardens, features the Cave (4) and the Outer Sanctuary (5). Trees make their apparition, with the ability to change shadow’s patrols if activated.
The third area is the Temple (6), using all of the elements above plus weeping statues that needs to be activated in a certain order. Paintings on the walls are clues to understand the combination, and they need to use all that they learned from past levels to access to the final Throne Room.