Summary
The Rite of Elements is a third-person action/puzzle game featuring approximately 90 minutes of gameplay. By mastering three elemental abilities, players solve a series of puzzles and challenges culminating in a climactic boss encounter.
My Contributions
As the faculty-selected lead game designer on a 15-student team, I devised and documented the core concept and mechanics, and co-authored the initial prototype. I also worked in a level design and art capacity, constructing and scripting several puzzles, and creating a handful of art assets for use in the game.
While the Rite of Elements includes plenty of time-based gameplay events, many of its puzzles are slower-paced cerebral challenges that test the player’s problem solving and observation skills.
As part of my level design duties, I designed and built “The Tower”, the final puzzle of the Earth Level where players use their physics-based earth binding ability to ascend a massive vertical space.
Players explore puzzle environments using a context sensitive reticle that changes shape or animates based on the element it is focused on.
In the game’s final level “Throne Room”, the player tests their skills in an exciting three-stage boss encounter.
The Rite of Elements uses illustrated pre-rendered movies and in-game cut-scenes to convey narrative and gameplay information. Part of my out-of-hours work on the game included illustrating a set of five images that were used to make our introductory movie.