Genre: 3D, Puzzle, Stealth, Adventure, RPG
Development time: 12 Weeks
Team Size: 7
Roles: Level Design, Narrative, Lighting and Environment
Platform: Unity
Play the game here: https://cajedgames.itch.io/wild-shape
Wild Shape is a single player 3rd person perspective stealth game in which you play as a Shapeshifter thrown into a battle between nature and machines. Seamlessly transform between two forms, the agile Raccoon and the brute Bear, engaging in strategic stealth, puzzle solving and wondrous exploration in the world of Wild Shape.
Level Design
Metrics Gym
The first six weeks of the development of Wild Shape were dedicated to the ideation of the game and the development of modularity and mechanics. I created a level in which we could easily test the mechanics of the game and adjust them to make sure the game felt good to play.
Levels and Pacing
The last 6 weeks of development of Wild Shape were dedicated to Level Design and Art integration.
I designed the Forest Level and the first section of the Final Base.
The Forest
The Forest Level is where the Player is taught and encouraged to use their Special Abilities. There are tutorials for the Raccoon’s teleport ability and the Bear’s freeze ability as well as many aesthetic moments and small collectible puzzles that encourage the player to investigate the uses of the Special Abilities and immerse the player in the world.
The first iteration of the forest was drawn on paper to have a general idea of beats and pacing before creating it with the Unity Terrain.
Final Base
The first section of the final base is crucial to teach the Player about the Lightning Trees, their interactions with the enemies and the effects that the destruction of the Lightning Trees have on the level.
Narrative
In Wild Shape, the Player takes on the Role of a Shapeshifter, one that can transform between the forms of a Raccoon and a Bear. The world of Wild Shape was a peaceful one, filled with life and the magic of Nature, that is until the Machines came.
The Machines live off of the same Natural Life Force that the shapeshifters do, except they can’t produce it for themselves and so they capture shapeshifters and harvest the Life Force from them.
The Player is thrown into the middle of this battle, beginning the game as one of the “harvested” shapeshifters, liberated by an Cougar/Elk shapeshifter by the name of Atticus who sacrifices his own life to destroy the Machine Base the player was caged in. This Elk gifts the powers of the forest, powers that he inherited from his father before him, to the Player, allowing the Player the ability to Freeze enemies for a short period, and to teleport short distances.
They learn that Atticus destroyed all of the Machines in the first base by destroying the big “Lightning Tree” in which the Machines store their energy, and so the Player goes to another base to do the same thing, to infiltrate the base and destroy the “Lightning Tree” to liberate the captured shapeshifters in the next base.
By collecting floating fragments that are hidden throughout the world, the Player can learn more about the world of Wild Shape, and the story of Atticus. Only if the Player collects all of the fragments will they learn that Atticus sacrifices his life to destroy the final “Lightning Tree” to destroy the Machine base, and that they player will ultimately make the same sacrifice.
Atticus was the son of the Great Elk of his pack, and knew, when he came of age he would lead the pack as Great Elk in his stead.
But then, the Machines came, and with them dawned the era of terror.
He took the strongest of his pack and they took to the Machine cave in a great stampede.
He remembers a time before the Machines, when his pack would graze in the fields as deer, or hunt in the forest as cougars.
Slowly, Atticus watched his pack dwindle. Day by day, the machines grew more powerful and more vicious.
But what they found in the caves was far worse than what they could have possibly imagined, they were overwhelmed.
He knew that when it became his turn to lead his pack, he would also inherit the powers of the forest.
When his father passed, Atticus knew the power that had been bestowed onto him would be his packs last hope.
He approached the final lightning tree, humming with the cries of the forest, echoing with the harrowing loss it had caused.
Atticus knew this would be his end, everything led up to this moment.
The Last Fragment
