4- The Calling
Game design progress blog
Overview
A team Vs team game about the summoning of Elder Gods, made up of small distinct rounds where team members must work together to win.
Context and backstory
The Calling is a multiplayer game that has two teams who are either trying to summon Cthulhu or prevent it. The game’s worldview is inspired by Lovecraftian horror and pays tribute to the Call of Cthulhu. The game's narrative is based on the conflict between human detectives and cultists (believers of the Elder Gods).
The summoning ceremony takes place over several rounds. Each has the teams either do or disrupt an activity using various mechanics. This follows a dynamic story arc, that is distinct to each team. The aim is to get teams working together in a fun way that creates moments of interaction that they will remember.
Game World and Aesthetics
The game takes place in an abandoned church in Arkham (1920s), which has been occupied by cultists and used as a place to summon the Elder Gods.
In-game screenshot
Brainstorming and planning
Brainstorming with Miro Board
Each of us wrote down what kind of multiplayer game we would want to make, and in the end we jointly decided to make a Call of Cthulhu game with teamwork and shooting elements in it.
During the planning phase, we used Trello to document our thoughts and work progress on various aspects of The Calling. (23rd March)
Narrative
- Intro
Cutscenes will be used to outline the story. The game has two story lines, one for each team. This will give players two experiences to go through.There will also be different story outcomes based on the results of the ceremony. A team winning 5-0 should be a rare occurrence and give a different ending to normal.
Cutscene storyboards were the first to made. After finding suitable 3D art assets, I used Unity Timeline to create my first game cutscene.(23rd March)
Intro cutscene storyboards
Beginning cutscene for Detective team
Beginning cutscene for Cultist team
- Outro
Concept arts will be used as background image, and texts on the image will show more detailed narrative to players. All concept images are made with photoshop, image materials are sourced from google image. Players can play multiple times and try to collect all the endings. (3rd May)
Four different outcomes
Gameplay
- Character
Cultists
This is the largest group of players. Their story objective is to perform several rituals and bring about the awakening of the Elder Gods. Cultists are led by the NPC Cult Leader who gives directions on the next task to be performed. Cultists have a short melee attack that they can use.
Cultists are limited to being always inside their lair and are prevented from leaving it.
When a Cultist dies, they become a Ghost. Ghosts can return to the land of the living by visiting certain spaces within the game area. (23rd March)
A Ghost is invulnerable to attacks, they are also unable to interact with the real world. They can however scare the living to death by touching them. The melee attack that the cultist previously had now becomes a dash attack to allow the Ghosts to cover a short distance quickly. (14th April)
Combat ability:
Cultists can use a short-range weapon to attack - Knife like attack. ( 23rd March)
Ghosts have a rush attack where they can shoot forward. Ghosts can use their rush ability as a way of quickly covering the map . (14th April)
Detectives
Detectives have discovered the plans of the Cultists and are now out to stop them. They are led by the NPC Police chief who stays outside the lair and gives them directions on what to do each round.
Detectives have a revolver that they can use to perform a ranged attack. The gun has six bullets before it needs to reload. Reload is automatic once the last shot has been fired.
Detectives start outside the main lair and must enter it to stop the ceremony.
When a detective dies. They respawn outside the lair. ( 23rd March)
Combat ability:
Detectives can fire a pistol to attack.
After 6 shots the gun automatically reloads. ( 23rd March)
- Level design
At first, we set the game to be asymmetrical with 2 teams of different sizes, therefore the level design will need to consider this imbalance.
The Cultist side is defending: They will play within a smaller, bounded area with limited number of access points.
The Detective side is attacking: They require a larger outer area to play within. This provides time for the defending side to prepare, while the attackers have multiple paths to approach to allow unpredictability within the game. So we made a possible map layout example. (23rd March)
Possible layout example
Then we created a base map based on the layout example. Considering that the detectives also need to be involved in the ceremony rounds to prevent them from happening and give the two teams enough space to engage, we enlarged the size of the church and made the main entrance of the church closer to the detective's spawn point.
Detectives will have multiple routes into the church area, but once inside the church, players will find it harder to get out, the map intends to keep players inside the church as much as possible to prevent players from leaving the mission area.
The church has three floors, and the altar in the basement is the core of the church. The functionality of other areas will be figured out after playtesting. (14th April)
Now the church has four task areas, with a large field for players to run around, avoid monsters, attack opponents and complete tasks. We ditched the basement idea, added two entrances to the church area near the Detective respawn point, and added two more entrances to the task area on the ground floor and first floor of the church. Players can also use the balconies on the first floor as open exits. Players can more easily descend from the balconies to the ground floor near the edge of the church area.
The task area on the ground floor is the Main Hall and Storage Room. On the first floor, we've got the Library and the Ceremony Room.
In order to provide players with more gameplay choices, the game has set up a variety of routes to enter the church area and different parts of the church, and use the balconies on the first floor as open exits. Players can more easily descend from the balconies to the ground floor near the edge of the church area. (3rd May)
Base map
Four task areas inside the church
Additional entrances to access the church area
The game is set at night, and the entire environment should be dark and gloomy, but there are more light sources at the end of the church than at the main entrance, attracting players to the centre of the map. There are several functional lights that give the player some visual cues, especially around stairs and entrances. The game tries to use distinct colours of lighting to cover different task areas to add visual variety to the gameplay experience. (3rd May)
- Ceremony rounds
The Calling ceremony is made up of 5 rounds. We aim to create a pool of 8-10 rounds that we can pick from in order to balance the game.
Rounds won’t have a 50-50-win rate. Some will slightly favour one team over the other. By dynamically choosing which round comes next, we can help teams who are losing to catch up. We can also randomise some of the order of the rounds, so that games do not always follow the same pattern.
The rounds will have different forms of interactions to provide different game play styles. The goal is to get away from a straight-up combat game. Some interactions will be of the QTE/Rhythm type. Especially for more audio-centred rounds like Chanting. ( 23rd March)
Other interactions will include:
- Searching through boxes which will take several seconds per search.
- Pushing objects around the map.
- Chasing or herding AI controlled animals. (14th April)
Ceremony design is the result of a team effort
- UI
Menu flow
Menu UI
UI for the main menu and settings panel are designed based on the menu flow. Players can customize game settings, and invite friends to play the game using a 5-letter code.
The Calling will let players select if they want to be Cultist or Detective. Once a team is full, other players can’t join that team. When the Host is ready they can start the game. Show the 5 letter code for this game so it can be shared with other players. (5 letter code is specific to the player hosting the game) ( 23rd March)
In-game UI
In-game UI components include mini-map, progress bar, time for each round, task panel, team members and in-game text penal.
There will also be text based instruction from NPC and direction pointers to tell players what they need to do and point to them in the right direction. We wish players can know how far along the ceremony is along, as well as how long is left in the round by looking at the timer and progress bar. New players may find it a bit difficult to get used to the map, so there'll also be a mini-map.(14th April)
For the future development of the UI:
1. If the player is killed, a skull icon will replace the player avatar. When the player respawns at the spawn point, the skull will be replaced by normal avatar.
This will let the player realize character's state quickly. We wanted to add this feature because in playtesting we found that cult players often have difficulty predicting the source of bullets from other detective players, so they may die instantly without being able to dodge and not have the best gaming experience.
2. Player's ID will glow red when they made one mistake during the final ceremony. We wish to let the cultist team know if their teammates made a mistake since the final ceremony is a rhythm game and requires a team effort.
3.Players will get the location of tasks, opponents and Spawn of Yog in the mini map. This was in the original develop plan but we didn't have the time to finish this part. (3rd May)
Future development
- Tutorial
The game onboarding process will use the mixed approach (walkthrough + hands-on).
When players experience The Calling for the first time, they will be taken into a waiting room after the matchmaking and before the game starts, where they will receive text instruction pop-ups on how to perform character movements, attacks and how to do tasks in their team.
Players will also get descriptions of the upcoming task before each round; NPC will provide helpful instructions and tips about mechanics prevent new players from getting confused at the beginning of the round. (3rd May)
Tutorial UI mock-up
