Specter Scenes

Specter Scenes is a puzzle mystery game which I had been solo developing until very recently. Re-watch a crime scene, manipulating time as you see fit to try to figure out not only what happened but also everyone's identity.

Time Rewinding

Control time at your will, going back and forth, re-watching shady deals, innocent conversations and even the moment of someone's death.

Who is who?

Nothing is known to you. You might follow someone's footsteps, but you don't know their name or even how they look like. Its up to you to use context clues to figure that out.

Intertwined Story

If you can't figure out a detail, maybe you don't have the whole picture. Not all levels will be able to be completed on a first run through, having to retrace your steps with knowledge acquired in future levels.

Inspirations

Obra

Roottrees

Unheard

Obra

1/3

Inspiration for this project came from the game The Roottrees are Dead, developed by Itch.Io user jjohnstongames. This game is in turn inspired by my favorite game of all time The Return of Obra Dinn.

Also as inspiration and reference for the development of this project is Unheard, by NExT Studios

All of these served as a basis that I then expanded and fleshed out into the concept it is today.

Although it is heavily inspired, I went to great lengths to insure that this game would be unique and not feel like a copy of these amazing games.

Development Timeline

I started this project's development in November of 2023.

I hit a wall, around January of 2024. Although Design and Programming were going great, I was aware that my artistic skills (especially in 2D) were not up to par on what for what I wanted.

I tried to recruit an artist, but being fresh out of college, it was hard to get anyone. So I stopped working on it.

Until May 2024, when I had already moved on to another project, I found someone who liked the idea and my vision for it and jumped on board.

Following that, one of my artist friends, who manly focuses on UX/UI Design, had their schedule open up and yet another friend expressed their intent to start making music for games.

In the span of a week the project I had almost abandoned suddenly had team of 4 people working on it.

As of writing this, not much has been done since, only we only had 2 meeting both to figure out the artistic vison and art style the game will have.

This is our artist latest studies which will be along the lines of the game's art style.

Gameplay Concept

The game centers around the idea of the player not knowing anything when they start.

They are given an objective (to answer the questions on that given level) and its up to them to figure out clues on what exactly happened.

This is the Core Loop I was working under while design the levels. The "explore" bubble encompasses both exploring the map and going back and forth through time.

The main mechanic of the game is time manipulation.

The player has a slider at the bottom of the screen as a well as a "play" button. When pressed, it will move time forward through out the whole map.

The player plays the role of a passive observer, figuring out what happened but never intervening in the action.

So, for example, the same character can have a innocent conversation at the beginning, but end the level by making a shady deal in a alleyway.

(All art is placeholder currently)

The player may also encounter items they may pickup, giving them extra clues and context to the overall story.

Some levels may not be able to be done on first visit. This will never be because of a mechanic that is locked, but because the player doesn't have enough knowledge to interpret all of the clue within that level.

All of this feeds into a larger Gameplay Loop, that I'm using to determine the overall flow of the game.

Level Design and Scope

Currently, the scope of this project is to make 2 levels. My initial idea for both the story and the game was bigger, but after assessing it realistically, it would take a really long time to accomplish that goal, so we settled for a making a demo version of it with only the first 2 levels.

City Level

The first level takes place in the middle of the city.

This level is used mostly as a tutorial
- Some of the final questions are very easy to answer
- Others require a bit more though process on the part of the player.

The level itself is somewhat big, leading to the player having to explore and follow the characters to witness all of the necessary conversations to finish it.

The layout is simple, and the important information is for the most part easily seen.

All of the information for this level can be obtained within it.

C2_MapLabbeled

C2_MapAsprite

Map2

C2_MapLabbeled

1/3

Placement_Map_Labbeled

Map_PLCM

Map1

Placement_Map_Labbeled

1/3

Restaurant Level

The second level is inside a restaurant just minutes after the first one.

In terms of size this is a smaller level, but it doesn't have any freebies for the final questions.

Although the difficulty increases from the first, its still not particularly hard, as its still showing the player the ropes.

The player cannot complete this level just with the information within it, needing to witness a shady deal happening in a alleyway of the first level and picking up an item from there to fully complete it.

The items the player could pick-up are in places that would give enough context on their purpose, but also in places that rewarded exploration.
- Incentivizes them to dig through every corner of the map.

Because I'm the only person working on the design and programming the documentation is made in a way that would give me the easiest time while designing and implementing it.

This will likely have to change in the future due the increase in team size.

Clue1

Clue2

Dialogue1

Clue1

1/4

Implementation

In terms of programming, the project is being developed in Unity with C#.

Currently both levels are implemented are ready to be tested, but no art has been done so far.

Although programming is not what I specialized in, I'm confident to be able to do most projects, with more or less efficiency as well as making block-outs and prototypes.

Pedro Soares - Game Designer

Specter Scenes

Inspirations

Inspiration for this project came from the game The Roottrees are Dead, developed by Itch.Io user jjohnstongames. This game is in turn inspired by my favorite game of all time The Return of Obra Dinn.

​

Also as inspiration and reference for the development of this project is Unheard, by NExT Studios

​

All of these served as a basis that I then expanded and fleshed out into the concept it is today.

​

Although it is heavily inspired, I went to great lengths to insure that this game would be unique and not feel like a copy of these amazing games.

Development Timeline

Gameplay Concept

The game centers around the idea of the player not knowing anything when they start.

They are given an objective (to answer the questions on that given level) and its up to them to figure out clues on what exactly happened.

​

This is the Core Loop I was working under while design the levels. The "explore" bubble encompasses both exploring the map and going back and forth through time.

The main mechanic of the game is time manipulation.

The player has a slider at the bottom of the screen as a well as a "play" button. When pressed, it will move time forward through out the whole map.

​

The player plays the role of a passive observer, figuring out what happened but never intervening in the action.

So, for example, the same character can have a innocent conversation at the beginning, but end the level by making a shady deal in a alleyway.

(All art is placeholder currently)

The player may also encounter items they may pickup, giving them extra clues and context to the overall story.

​

Some levels may not be able to be done on first visit. This will never be because of a mechanic that is locked, but because the player doesn't have enough knowledge to interpret all of the clue within that level.

​

All of this feeds into a larger Gameplay Loop, that I'm using to determine the overall flow of the game.

Level Design and Scope

Implementation

In terms of programming, the project is being developed in Unity with C#.

​

Currently both levels are implemented are ready to be tested, but no art has been done so far.

​

Although programming is not what I specialized in, I'm confident to be able to do most projects, with more or less efficiency as well as making block-outs and prototypes.