Alena

Summary

Alena is a point n click adventure set during WWI, but more specificly it takes place at the start of the russian revolution. The player takes the role of Alena, a russian deserter, trying to flee her country.

But in her attempt she is shot down by revolutionists, and crashes on a deserted island. During her adventure she finds out that the island was a german base, but that something went horribly wrong there!

Specifications

• Point n Click

• Created in 8 weeks half-time

My Contributions

• Level Design

• Puzzle Design

• Helped write the story told throughout the game

• Playtesting

Design Philosophy

We knew at the start that we wanted to make a game everyone could finish without tearing their hair out. But to still have an engaging game we made the puzzles a bit more interactable, instead of just picking up items and combining them with other items.

We thought that the most fitting style was to create a mystery for the game.

But to not overwhelm the graphical artists with work, we decided that we didn’t want to interact with any characters. So a mystery-game without any characters, with interactable puzzles.

When it was time to decide on a setting, the first thing we settled on was that the game should take place on a deserted island. But we didn’t want to be a cliché with a tropical island. So we settled on that the island would be somewhere in the Baltic sea during autumn. The time-period was decided last. We settled on the first world war, because we had a big interest in history, and the second world war felt a bit “done”.

Working as a team

So how did we actually design the game as level designers? We started to figure out how the player got on the island, and then how they would get off it. We filled out the journey with fitting rooms, that progressivly revealed more about the island.

When we had a room designed with puzzles, we called a meeting and drew our idea for the room in rough strokes on a whiteboard for the group. That way the graphical artists still could express their art, but had certain guidelines to follow. Together we came up with solutions on how to make it work the best for every discipline.

Workflow by the artists

Closing Thoughts

I am very proud of what we made together. It was the first game many of us had ever done, but we still made a game many people had fun with playing. Our interactable mini-game puzzles left a lasting impression on the people that played it, and our setting which was grounded and realistic compared to the other games made it stand out.

If I ever make another point n click, I would like it to be less linear. Our game basicly had one direction to go, and I think it would’ve been fun to make a hub you returned to after a couple of puzzles. But given the circumstances, I am more than happy with the game we made.