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 One - Clearing
Consideration: Narrative
I chose to approach the visualization of the intruding pollution through use of a skybox that borders the terrain, adjusting cloud opacity and coloration to a toxic green. Cloud speed was given a 3x bump to show that the carbon dioxide is a force on the move, further increasing the player’s sense of urgency. The cloud particle systems were then placed on the border of playable areas to show the pollution’s spillover effect. Pairing the pollution particle systems with a post-process volume desaturates and tints the world to further demonstrate the drastic impact the pollution has on the environment.
Level 2 Snapdragon at the end of Level 1 initial path
Consideration: Mechanics
The core gameplay loop in Pocket Plants is based around the player discovering, gathering, watering, and leveling up plants to clear pollution. To reinforce this loop I designed the starting point to include the majority of those elements in the viewport on load in. Pollution can be seen behind distant mountains. A river flows to the left of the player, signifying a water source while also directing the player forward down the desired path denoted with stepping stones. The desired path ends at a fork with a level 2 snapdragon prominently placed, allowing the player to see what the plants of the world can be if leveled. Right at the fork is a designator for plants to be placed, pollution, and a nearby bee hive.
Bee Hives are required for the player to level up plants to level 3 and clear the highest level pollution. Since this is meant to be a significant and comparatively difficult task, I believed it was necessary to have the bee particle system interact with the plant in a much more interesting way than just being present. By setting up a sequencer connected to the level 3 boolean on the pickup plant, I was able to create a path by which the bees would fly from their hive to the plant to pollenate, triggering the level up 3 effect.
Consideration: Pathing
With exploration being highly incentivized, I chose to lean towards a more mild form of suggestive pathing by clearing foliage. The only instance in which I believe a heavy hand is needed is in the exit path. Informing the player as to where their goal path is located and giving them a since of mystery as to where it leads is crucial to promoting level completion.