Elliot Gray- Brief 2

Elliot Gray- 1704178

'''Level Design- Charlie No-Face'''

Summary

This level is set in the mind of Charlie No-Face (Raymond Robinson) A man left severely deformed and blinded after an electrical incident when he was a child. This led to him becoming extremely reclusive and he would only go out in public at night. He enjoyed walking along a long stretch of freeway outside his town where he would be spotted by passers by and would startle them. As he was blind he used a cane to walk but was still struck by cars numerous times. This mini-game will deal with his internal feelings about shocking people and deal with the dynamic that since he was blinded he doesn’t know exactly what he looks like.

The level will deal with the player taking control of Charlie and progressing along a seemingly never-ending highway at night whilst avoiding lights, be that from the headlamps of cars or the flash from cameras however since Charlie is blind the player will mainly have to rely on sound to avoid the obstacles. However, as the player is trying to concentrate, Charlie will also be talking to the therapist making it hard to hear some of them in advance. Like the other min-games/levels if the player loses then that affects the final level of the game. If the player is hit by five objects, then they fail the level and move on. This is visually shown by Charlie storming out of the room.

Narrative

The narrative will focus on Charlies frustration at shocking everyone he sees. He feels bad for them having to look at him and therefore tries to stop people from seeing him however he still needs to get fresh air and enjoys walking. So he tries to avoid people as much as possible apart from his family. This creates a lot of inner conflict and makes him quite irritable. This all becomes apparent as the therapist talks to him with the aim of finding him some inner peace.

Timings

The level will last around three and a half to four minutes. The player will have to survive this long to win the level. As the player gets further through the obstacles will get progressively closer together and as there is a constant stream of dialogue happening at the same time, the player will sometimes have to react quickly as some will be more unexpected than others.

Mechanics

The player will be constantly be moving forward and will have to move left and right to avoid obstacles. The obstacles will be either cars that come through the centre of the screen or groups of people with cameras at either side.

The main mechanics will be sound based as by the time the player sees the lights it will almost be too late to dodge them. The player will have to listen for the chatter of people or the sound of cars engines and dodge accordingly. The main difficulty however comes from the fact that the player will not always be able to hear clearly as the level (like the others) takes place in a therapy session and therefore there will be a constant dialogue between Charlie and the therapist which will change depending on how many times the player gets hit by obstacles by becoming more heated before, after five hits, Charlie will storm out and the player does not succeed.

Visual Style

-A mock screenshot is shown below-

The main game has a pixel-art style overall however this minigame has a 3D low-poly style. The level in general utilises high contrasts between the darkness of the environment and the bright light of the car headlights and camera flashes. Due to this contrast nothing will ever fully be clear, the player will just see enough to engage their ludic knowledge of cars and cameras, etc.

Sound Design

The sound design of the level aims to be eerie and jarring. There won’t be any background music and the conversation between Charlie and the therapists will serve as the main sound of the level. The only other sounds will be of the car engine and people talking that will get louder as the player gets closer to them. If the player collides with an obstacle there will be a flash and a loud sound of a car hitting him or a loud camera shutter click.