The Forgotten City

Introduction

The Forgotten City is a local co-op 2D platformer game designed based on my college (The One Academy, Malaysia) project brief that requires students to amplify the brand presence through gamification during 13 weeks. Out of all the 4 given options of brands to choose from, I have decided to focus on one of the attractions from Lost World of Tambun Theme Park (Ipoh, Malaysia), known as Lost World Tin Valley.

Trailer

Game Purpose

Objective

To let people in this day and age appreciate and continue preserving the valuable Tin Mining heritage in Ipoh, Malaysia that is almost forgotten.

Problem Solving

Lost World Tin Valley tends to be overlooked as compared to the other attractions from the theme park. By gamifying this, hopefully will draw people’s attention towards it.

Development Process

Game Design Sketches

The process of having a basic sketch of the game key visuals from the character design to the game UI elements, storyboarding some of the key scenes, and planning out the game map to visualize the whole flow and experience of the game.

Game Overview

Core Gameplay

3 tasks are given to the players to complete within 180 seconds. One player could jump while another player could collect objects and fix the broken shops.

The game goal is to solve the puzzles by collecting the appropriate tins to fix the shops accordingly while activating the platforms for each other at the same time. By going through all of these puzzles, players will collect the memorial photos that could eventually restore the forgotten city to how it was.

Game Monetization

Two free tickets as a prize for winning the game to visit Lost World Tin Valley.

Development Process

Design Process

Key Visuals Development

Game Scenes Development

The game was first tested out with placeholders for the alpha test and only replaced with the finalized visual assets in the beta test.

Design Process Challenges

During the process of creating this game, multiple visual design testing was carried out to eventually come up with the finalized art style that was realistic enough to fit with this game theme and its atmosphere.

While carrying out the alpha test (low-fidelity prototype) and beta test (high-fidelity prototype) for this game, several bugs and errors occurred that took quite some time to fix as this was my first time designing a 2D platformer game in my college.

As for the level design-wise, a few attempts were made to achieve the outcome that has both puzzles and cooperation between 2 players fit in well together for the overall game balancing as it is a local co-op game.

Final Preview Stills

Special Thanks

Last but not least, I would also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the lecturers at my college, Mr. Lim Shan Fei and Tan Min Ken guiding me in both visuals and technical aspects throughout this 13-week project.