A TAVG (Text-based Adventure Game) set in the Cthulhu Culture with three different forms of innovation puzzle levels. 

Jeremy SONG Ziye 

Leon LIU Yiming 

Francie ZHANG Ping 

Anthony An Dong 

Kai ZHENG Kaiyang 

Tutor: Jacky Chou, Rhys Jones, Simon Yang

The CreativeWork

The Discovery: 

Asian knows very little about the Cthulhu culture, and introduce such an unconventional mythological system can present a different way to think. Traditional text-based adventure games have fixed gameplay and story structure. We aim to design a mobile game with innovative story background, gameplay and express some ideas. Combining the story and gameplay is a hard point.  

Our target players are fans of Cthulhu Mythos and puzzle game enthusiasts. We investigated the successful Cthulhu cultural works like games, films, and animations on the market, and tried to find a way to present an immersive experience. We found that using some visual and audio effects such as using the shaking camera and mixing depressive music can render the game atmosphere. 

On the other hand, the innovation of gameplay is also essential. We studied a Cthulhu style role-playing game named Darkest Dungeon. It allows players to experience the dark and bloody atmosphere of the game while enjoying exciting gameplay. 

The Design Solution: 

As summarize, fascinating plot and innovative gameplay are essential keys to rendering an immersive atmosphere in the TAVG game. To present the Cthulhu atmosphere and express our idea well, we use three characters to describe the whole story from their perspective, meaning to tell that everyone is only part of the information, and the truth is often beyond imagination. We also use some classic elements such as octopus and body segments in the scene and story as a bonus fact.  

On the other hand, balancing the story and puzzle part is also essential. We did various user tests such as questionnaires, interviews, and user gameplay experience feedback to improve the story and puzzle part. To match the story background, 19th Century London, we use printmaking style in the game with parchment paper as the background to form a unique game style. As the analysis's result shows, music selection is the critical point of a TAVG. We chose three different music used on various occasions.