Heart Of The Forest

Level/Narrative Designer

Elevator Pitch

The Heart of the Forest is a 2.5D adventure platformer for PC. You play as a red-capped mushroom tasked by the Forest God to help save the forest from corruption by finding and returning the Heart of the Forest before the corruption takes over.

Itch Page

Final Build release

30/11/2022

Platform

Genre

Adventure, Platformer

Team Size

5 Designers
4 Artists
4 Programmers

Duration

4 Months

About the Project

Heart of the forest was my major production assignment for my 2nd year at the AIE we had 5 weeks to work on proof of concept before major production when everyone was allowed to switch to a new project for the rest of the year.

I was in the heart of the forest during proof of concept and major production but a lot of our members got switched around so we spent a week catching them up and updating our concept to make it more achievable with our group and timeframe.

Videos

Role & Responsibilities

Trailer

Level Designer

Each Designer was split off to focus on one area mine was the garden area(To the side), but we still helped out our fellow designers if needed.

My contribution includes:

Enemies, mechanics, platform and layout in the garden area.
Enemy Design (Attack pattern, Speed, movement, etc.)
Platform Design for the passable platform and bounce mushrooms

Narrative Designer

I was in charge of the narrative design, so I wrote all the text in the game; I implemented The dialogue with a custom program made by a programmer.

My contributions include the following:

NPC Placement and dialogue
Forest God Dialogue
Sign Placement and Dialogue

Dev Commentary

Level Design

Side Area: Concepting

The initial concept of the side area was to focus on the burrow ability while making it very platform heavy. This area went through a few iterations. At the start, I had two general ideas for the level.

My first idea was a bunch of moving platforms that would move in a line in one direction, disappearing in the background and reappearing afterwards. With a few walls, you must burrow under, and enemies would be on the standard platforms. At the same time, there would be spore enemies constantly shooting in your direction. The main idea behind this one was fast pace action making the player dodge and run around in a panic. However, this was quickly scraped as it would've been more of a bullet hell level which would've been a tone shift from this platformer game.

The second idea was the core I eventually went for. This idea started with you burrowing down into an underground area where you must burrow into a moving platform and exit out the top from the other side. From here, you have two paths. You can either move left and up or down and right. The down and right parts were eventually cut. On the other hand, the up and right path starts with you on a moving platform that'll lead to the top level or a platform with a rotating platform near it. Once you burrow into the rotating platform, you can take it to another platform with a bouncing mushroom and an enemy. On this platform, there's another rotating platform that will take you to a mini area where you obtain the heart.

The final concept iteration cut out a few things and changed others.

The left and down path was cut and replaced with a garden area for artists to decorate.
The path to the top area and bottom area was added, meaning the only area my level wasn't connected to was the tutorial. This was making the game seem more like an exploration game rather than a generic platformer.
The little platform area with the heart was cut, as I was concerned that people would have trouble reaching it via the rotating platform. Now it's just a collection area with a way to get back via platforming.
The biggest change was the rotating cube(Later called the forest wheel), A wheel where the player must traverse inside and escape using the burrow ability while an enemy is shooting at you.

Side Area: Implementing

After implementing the concept design into the game and receiving feedback, I made a few changes once again.

I added a few more platforms here and there so it would feel more like a platformer.
I changed the rotating cube to a rotating hexagon as the 90-degree turn made it hard for people to move it.
I added warning signs this warned players of potential hazards that could appear to help them move forward. This seemed like it wouldn't work at first as it was just a light nudge, but it got most players curious enough that they found the platform and path they needed to go.

The second revision had a few changes.

The environment was added to the level done by Paige.
The second one is the addition of an NPC hinting that there's nothing over here. He was added because players kept jumping down to the garden area.
I replaced some of the more simplistic platforms with rotating platforms you automatically burrow into; this made it into a timing platform and showed off the burrow ability quite well.
The rotating hexagon finally changed into the forest wheel, which made moving in it significantly easier.

The final iteration of my level had few but still significant changes.

The auto burrow rotating platforms are now just regular rotating platforms; as players were getting confused as to why they were burrowing automatically, we found it best to remove the feature entirely.
The second change was replacing the platforms at the end with collapsing platforms, as people didn't really see the point in having them so close to the end; this also helped after you get the heart fragment, you can fall off one of these platforms to get a shortcut to the exit.
The third change was making it so the moving platform would only start moving upon touching them once this was added due to players moving too quickly and missing a moving platform coming into view, making them confused as to where they have to go.
The final change was adding a poison pool to the bottom of the area. This was added as players falling from up high were annoyed at the fact they had to restart from scratch, not realising they could go back to the save point above the forest wheel by hitting respawn in the menu, so I added instant death.

First idea

Second idea

Final Concept iteration

Revision #1

Revision #2

Final Revision

Side Area: changes in level when heart of collected

After collecting the heart fragment, the poison pool is removed along with a wall next to it for a shortcut back to the forest god. This was added here instead of when returning the heart fragment because otherwise, you would have to parkour backwards through the level, which is extremely difficult.

Upon returning the heart, the corruption will be removed, returning the area to its natural colours.

Narrative Design

NPC's

NPCs are scattered throughout the world; they offer tips, controls and guidance to help the player. The NPCs in the tutorial tell you about the player's abilities and some little extras those abilities can do. The NPCs in the village are a bit more varied; there is one in the village that gives you a tutorial on air drafts, another which tells you the general location of the heart fragments and the last one gives you a bit more story as well as hinting you to go talk to the forest god who is also in the village. There is one last NPC in the side area in a little quiet space that you can find. He doesn't tell you anything important, but he's there for aesthetic purposes.
These NPCs have changed a lot throughout development, one of the big ones being that people would often skip over them and be completely unaware of how to play the game. We came up with a few solutions to this, the first one being signs. They are there to explain the core controls, while the NPCs give you more tips and explain how the mechanics work a bit better. An example of this is how the NPC that teaches you about burrow tells you about how it keeps you safe from enemies. Another change was forcing a few NPCs to talk to you when you passed them. The most common use of this was an NPC in the village telling you to speak to the mushroom god since most people were unaware you had to speak to him.

The NPCs also gained a few different designs and some background NPCs in the village you couldn't talk to make the village seem more populated.

Signs

Signs were introduced when we found players were often skipping NPCs that taught you how to play. So we decided to make NPC give you tips while the signs taught you how the controls work. However, that doesn't mean they were flawed. When we first made them, the signs were barely readable since it was black text on a brown sign; it blended in way too well. Eventually, we decided to give the text a brighter outline and make sure it showed the buttons you needed to press and not just the letter. To some people, it was still hard to read; however, the vast majority found it much easier and could play the game fairly well.

Forest God

The forest god is by far the most important NPC in the game and is the only one you need to talk to you to beat the game. Every time you obtain a heart fragment, you must return it to the forest god, and they shall restore the area you collected it from. However, not many players realised you had to speak to this god or that you even could speak to him. This was an easy solution, solved by having an NPC that talks to you automatically and tells you your goal.

However, there was another way we helped players learn about this mechanic. Locking off all the areas until the heart fragment at the end of the tutorial level is Located and given back to the forest god; This made the players understand their goal and what they had to do much more clearly instead of accidentally wandering off into a different area and being very confused. This change worked wonders, and many players understood the game's goal much better without the need for guidance from us.