• Wiped

Wiped

Wiped is a narrative-driven 3D First Person Exploration Game (FPEG). The player progresses in the game by uncovering clues and each clue builds the story further. The player must explore and uncover these clues to solve the mystery and piece it all together.
My responsibilities through the project were:

- Concept, story and script
- Designing interactions and gameplay
- Iterative Prototyping and User Testing
- User Feedback and Refinement
- Team and Project Management
- Sprint and Task Planning
- Documentation
- Programming

  • Student Project, The CDM
  • Roles

    Narrative Game Designer
    Project Manager
    Programmer

  • Duration

    9 weeks

  • Team Size

    5 members

Challenge

To successfully convey a cohesive story through disconnected fragments irrespective of the order in which they may be found.

Approach

Our approach was to user-test our story and game as early and as often as possible to ensure the players understood the story.
Since changes post code implementation are expensive in terms of time and effort, we did multiple physical and low-fidelity prototypes early to ensure minimum re-work.

The Process

Storyboarding and Scriptwriting

We brainstormed different ideas for the plot and created storyboards for the cinematic clip preceding the game as well as for complete story. We decided on the basic mechanic and the overall gameplay.
Over the project, we prototyped and iterated on the story and completed the entire script.

Narrative Game Design

Once we established the plot, we decided how gameplay would intertwine with the story. The character, having lost their memory in a car crash, goes to a house nearby for help and interacts with different objects there which trigger her memories.

We designed an ideal order we preferred the story pieces to be discovered in and created affordances to reinforce that. Iteratively, we user tested and improved on them.

Prototyping and UserTesting - Story

Physical prototypes with content of the in-game clues were handed to user-testers in different blank envelopes. The users were asked to go through them and provide their understanding.

It helped us identify which parts of the story weren’t clear and the need for redundant information in some clues.




Prototyping and UserTesting - Navigation

We asked users to navigate through our medium fidelity digital prototype to find the path most users take. In a dark room, most players went towards the fireplace first. We placed the clue we wanted to be found first near the fireplace.

We tracked their movement through the complete space and strategized the placement of the clues accordingly.

Iterative Development

We went through multiple iterations of the project to create the end product. The game was user-tested at each iteration and feedback was taken into account.
The end product is available to play online and was received well by a number of players.

Trailer