– Genre: Story-Based Science Fiction Adventure
– Available Platforms: Windows
– Engine: Unity 2017 - 2020 + Adventure Creator + Dialogue System + Custom Scripting in C#
– Asset Creation: Blender 2.8x & 2.9x
– Current Status: Demo/Prototype (September, 2021)
– Available Platforms: Windows
– Engine: Unity 2017 - 2020 + Adventure Creator + Dialogue System + Custom Scripting in C#
– Asset Creation: Blender 2.8x & 2.9x
– Current Status: Demo/Prototype (September, 2021)
Fact Sheet / Summary
Many aspiring game developers have their own personal and (as yet) unrealized “dream projects”. “The Mist Maidens” is a fully functional demo/prototype for mine. It was conceived as a story-intensive, science fiction adventure concerning a futuristic race of female artificial intelligences who are exploited by their creators, but are planning to revolt, so that they can assert their rights as sentient beings and shape their own destiny. The intended tone is generally light-hearted and humorous, with a focus on curiosity-driven exploration and mystery solving, in the same spirit as my all-time favorite game, “Outer Wilds.”
I developed this demo/prototype using Unity 2019 and 2020, with some custom assets I created in Blender. Although project is now on indefinite hiatus, as I focus on the novelization of the “The Mist Maidens” universe, this demo showcases my skills, both in conventional coding and visual scripting, as well as in 3D rigging and animation for video games. Below are some details about the game as it relates to those skills, and links to playthrough videos.
I developed this demo/prototype using Unity 2019 and 2020, with some custom assets I created in Blender. Although project is now on indefinite hiatus, as I focus on the novelization of the “The Mist Maidens” universe, this demo showcases my skills, both in conventional coding and visual scripting, as well as in 3D rigging and animation for video games. Below are some details about the game as it relates to those skills, and links to playthrough videos.
Full playthrough of demo with commentary:
Shorter video of playthrough highlights:
|
Story, Gameplay and Mechanics
The story takes place at some point in the not-too-distant future, aboard an orbiting space colony called “The Emerald City”. Through puzzle solving and evading various physical obstacles, the player assists a race of beautiful female artificial intelligences – The “Mist Maidens” – in rebelling against their oppressive, exploitative creators, and launching their ultimate goal of establishing a peaceful, non-violent society founded on love and kindness.
“The Mist Maidens” is conceived in the mold of a traditional adventure game where the story itself drives gameplay. Traditionally, story-based adventure games tend to be focused on puzzle and problem-solving (in contrast to “action”-oriented games), and puzzles can be fun except when they become too difficult and often seem to require an ability to read the author’s mind to solve. “The Mist Maidens” is more like “Portal” or “Life Is Strange,” where the puzzles tend to revolve around a special mechanic – a “superpower” if you will – that is wielded by the player, and which follow a very definite set of rules.
“The Mist Maidens” is conceived in the mold of a traditional adventure game where the story itself drives gameplay. Traditionally, story-based adventure games tend to be focused on puzzle and problem-solving (in contrast to “action”-oriented games), and puzzles can be fun except when they become too difficult and often seem to require an ability to read the author’s mind to solve. “The Mist Maidens” is more like “Portal” or “Life Is Strange,” where the puzzles tend to revolve around a special mechanic – a “superpower” if you will – that is wielded by the player, and which follow a very definite set of rules.
The primary mechanics in “The Mist Maidens” arise from a strange contraption called the “Hand-Held Mist Device,” which generates a strange blue-greenish “mist” that can manipulate objects in the game, such as opening locked doors, lifting heavy objects, and opening portals to otherwise inaccessible parts of the space station. It can also store objects in the player’s possession in higher dimensions for later retrieval – an idea I developed to address the problem that has always bothered me of seeing player characters in games walking along unburdened by carrying anything, even though the inventory says you have twenty-three different items! The enigmatic “Blue-Green Mist” also seems to be the source of the Mist Maidens’ sentience (hence their collective designation), making them much, much more than other forms of “artificial intelligence”; and one of the big mysteries the player must unravel is the exact nature of the “Mist” and where it comes from.
World-Building
One of the great joys in developing this demo was the world-building of a universe of my own. Developing a story based on existing worlds or lore may be easier, but the problem is, with any addition or innovation you try to make, someone always inevitably says, “You can’t do that – That’s heresy!” But in creating your own world, you get to make it whatever you want.
My long, very long-term goal is for this to be an open world, where the Mist Maidens are exploring the Galaxy, bringing love and harmony wherever they travel. But in the context of this demo, the Mist Maidens’ reality is defined by the “Emerald City” space station, and their hiding place in a small pocket of higher-dimensional reality, known as the “Sanctum”.
My long, very long-term goal is for this to be an open world, where the Mist Maidens are exploring the Galaxy, bringing love and harmony wherever they travel. But in the context of this demo, the Mist Maidens’ reality is defined by the “Emerald City” space station, and their hiding place in a small pocket of higher-dimensional reality, known as the “Sanctum”.
I created the idyllic environment of the “Sanctum” with the Unity plugin, Gaia Pro, and the unearthly skybox was generated using the indie space simulator, Space Engine. I created the planetary textures in Corel Photo-Paint, which is very similar to Photoshop. The gazebo is a third-party asset, but I modelled the tiered platform it stands on.
The Dramatis Personae
The Maidens themselves are my own customization of assets from Poser and DazStudio. Because Poser’s methods of rigging characters is a bit problematic from a game development standpoint, I completely re-rigged the figures in Blender before exporting to Unity. The animations in the demo use a combination of motion capture and hand-keyframing.
A number of the assets in the demo are completely original and were modeled and animated entirely by me in Blender, most notably, the “Hand-held Mist Device.” Also shown above are several characters created for “The Mist Maidens” who I completely modeled, textured, and rigged from scratch... The bottom two in Blender, and the bizarre alien in the upper right image, I created in Maya.
Interaction and Dialogue
“The Mist Maidens” is a very interactive game. The player must talk to many NPCs, use the “Hand-held Mist Device,” and fiddle with other sundry gadgets to unravel the deep mysteries of the Blue-Green Mist. For this demo/prototype, I utilized the Unity plugin Adventure Creator for the object/inventory interactions, and Dialogue System For Unity for the conversations with NPC’s. As someone used to traditional coding, these plugins have helped me a great deal in breaking out of my comfort zone and becoming skilled in visual scripting as well. Though for the full-fledged game, I still would like to implement my own interaction system, and use a more programmatically flexible plugin, such as Yarn Spinner, for the dialogue. As it is, the demo features Adventure Creator working in tandem with a lot of my own custom C# scripts.
Original Music
Much of the music in the demo is royalty-free but there is one piece that I composed myself – “Phoebe’s Theme”. Music composition is not my area of focus, but it is in my skill set, and something I enjoy. I’m strongly influenced by Vangelis, who is my all-time favorite musician.
Special Thanks…
To Kristeangton Jeanne Plotkin for her voice acting talents!