Overview
Pocket Plants is a third-person survival game that takes place on a planet overrun with invasive plants. While beautiful, these plants produce too much carbon dioxide to sustain other life on the planet. The player must gather plants and utilize propagation to save their suffocating ecosystem.
Level Three - River
View of ravine exit from level start
Consideration: Narrative
In approaching the final level, I knew I had to apply all that I had learned over the course of one and two to make it the stand-out experience. To make it a stand out experience, I set the scene at twilight to imply the main character had been adventuring all day and covering significant ground. I bumped up the volumetric fog to cover the entire landscape with a scattering color matching that of the pollution. This aided in creating the eerie since that you were getting closer to the pollution’s epicenter. Similarly, the start location depicted to the left is part of the game’s subtle attempt of imbuing players with a sense of empowerment and justice by having the start location be in an increasingly dark location, set on a path to light. This contrast growing stronger over each level, ideally imparting a stronger feeling to the player.
Consideration: Mechanics
Every lamp is accompanied by its own set of fireflies, represented by emissive spheres in a mildly turbulent vortex niagara system. To bring more life to the world, I put some of these particles on sequencer tracks across the level to create firefly flight patterns. This appears more natural in game as oppose to having placed emitters.
Firefly sequencer path outside ravine exit
Consideration: Theming
As the player makes their way down to the bridge they pass a clearing slightly sloping to the waterfront. Clusters of Cattails line the lily-laden river, bringing about feelings of calmness and peace. The lily pads also help break up the monotony of the expanse between landmasses.
The shadows of the canopies also had the unintended benefit of allowing more of the pollution coloration to come through on the outskirts of the designated paths.
By using a tree with a larger canopy in denser groupings, it allowed for the obstruction of vision. This obstruction helped reinforce the idea of separation between the landmasses, with the only view in being from the bridge.
Consideration: Pathing
Through the combining of the holdable lantern with a new light and a fence from the greenhouse level, I was able to merge actors into a pretty convincing lamp post. These lamp posts were placed along the edge of the walking path and were always accompanied by rocks and/or bushes at their base to help hide the imperfections of the makeshift posts.
By spacing out the lamp posts and varying the altitude of the landscape, down, then up at the end, it always provides a clear indicator of your intended path that is viewable from a distance.
The lamps combined with the fireflies also help relieve atmospheric tension and show glimpses of the world’s whimsy that hides beneath the pollution. With the water being the only reflective surface, it makes locations like this much more special.