Aera

Note: This is a vertical slice of the game. The gameplay shown above does not convey the full story of the game.

Aera is story game I developed for my Storytelling & Gaming assignment at my college. This game focuses on storytelling through games.

The Lighting

I want create an ambient mood similar to the game Firewatch, players get to enjoy the stunning wilderness of pre-apocalyptic world. In the game, the ambients such as fireflies and comets are randomly generated so players experience different environment every time they play.

Firewatch and The Last Of Us are part of my main inspiration when creating this game. I want to combine the stunning graphics from Firewatch combining with the storytelling from The Last Of Us .

The Process

Level Design

I started off the level design by blocking the environment and painting in huge chunks of trees. To created the terrain itself, I sculpt it in Unity. My thought process is to create different kind of environment at different stages of the game. So at the first part of the game, you would see different species of trees and a different one as your progress later in the story. The rocks sculpture will also change in variation as you explore the environment further.

Below are the progress shots of the levels:

For more details about the process of how I develop my game, you may head over to my design journal for more info.