Third-Person Action Adventure
AURAH
Collaboratively created the AURAH game for college project within a team of four, where my responsibilities encompassed mainly narrative design. I also did game and level design for the game. AURAH is a third-person adventure game centered around the story of a student mastering magic in a futuristic space academy.
INFO
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Release Date: December 2023
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My Role: Narrative, Game & Level Design
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Game Download Link: Aurah (itch.io)
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GDD: Aurah GDD
STORY
Aurah, our playable protagonist, is a mystic possessing the rare ability to command two elemental forces: Fire and Water. Such dual elemental mastery is a unique and exceptional gift, as only a select few throughout the universe can manipulate more than a single element. Consequently, she has been chosen to attend the prestigious Arch-Academy in the year 23XX.
SUMMARY
​Our game commences with an elaborate obstacle course, meticulously designed by the Arch-Academy to evaluate and instruct mystics in harnessing their unique abilities. This course presents a myriad of challenges, including traps, puzzles, platforming and combat drones, each serving as a vital lesson in mastering their powers. Within this challenging terrain, Aurah encounters not only her own formidable capabilities but also a rival.
MAIN FEATURES
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Explore the futuristic and magical world of Aurah in third-person
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The player can learn and cast magic spells in battle and for solving puzzles and for overcoming obstacles.
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Progress through the game to learn more about backstories about the protagonist, the Healers (anti-magic rebels) and the origin of the meteor.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - STORY
The team wanted to do a game for the college gamejam and the theme was "Futuristic Fable". So all 4 of us reached a decision that we wanted to do a game that combined sci-fi and fantasy. As I was in charge of narrative development, I came up with the idea that we can design a narrative that focuses on a school that teaches magic in the future. Additionally, we all wanted to keep the level design simple due to lack of resources and time (3 months) for the gamejam. Therefore, I designed the narrative in such a way that the player will be able to play as student in the magic academy going through a obstacle course or tournament of sorts.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - MECHANICS
While discussing about what magic abilities and mechanics, we would have in the game, the team wanted the protagonist to have water and fire spells which can be used in combat as well as in overcoming obstacles. For example, the Flamethrower spell can be used to easily dispatch Ice Drones and melt Ice Doors. So I designed the narrative and made set of rules for magic spells. I created the Mana Spectrum and each character in the story could only use any one magic type and its variants whereas our character is the only one who could use more than 1 type of magic - fire and water type.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - MAGIC
To explain how and why everyone has powers in this world, I designed the narrative in which in the year 23XX, a meteor hits earth and the energy (dubbed as mana by the people) in the core of Earth is spread to the universe. As most people moved to different planets before the meteor hit, these people get abilities to manipulate certain types of matter. For example, the people in the planet that has mostly volcanoes and deserts were blessed with manipulating fire matter which resulted in them being called Fire Mystics.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - AURAH
Aurah was fleshed out with more narrative lore to make the players connected with our protagonist. Her father is a Fire Mystic and her mother is a Water Mystic. They were both from two planets that were in war with each other. Due to this, Aurah was not accepted on both planets and had to spent her entire life on the magic academy. The academy was interested in her because she was the only mystic who could use more than one magic type.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - LEVEL 1
Due to the limited time of 3 months, the team took the decision to do 2 levels - 1 magical and 1 futuristic. The team was really interested in doing the floating islands level due to the mysticism it has. So I designed the narrative in which the game begins on the obstacle course and the level takes place inside the Simulator room inside the magic academy. The Simulator room simulates the world of a planet in the story that has floating islands. This also fit our level as it also began with a tutorial of the game.
NARRATIVE DESIGN
PROCESS - LEVEL 2
As the team wanted Level 2 to be futuristic, I designed the narrative in such a way that after Level 1 floating islands simulation, as part of the obstacle course tournament, the students have to go to Tech Tower of the academy that takes care of the technological aspects of the institution. The Tech Tower has multiple floors in which each floor is designed to be seperate facilities. For example, one of the floors is called the Archives Floor and the consoles in that floor has information on multiple students. The player can actually interact with the console screens. Another student who is also a hacker has provided our protagonist with a masterkey that can unlock consoles to view secret information.
LEVEL DESIGN
Aurah has 2 levels. As the game focuses on magic and future technology, we wanted the levels also to highlight these pillars. Level 1 takes place in the Floating Islands which gives a sense of magical wonder. Level 1 consists of the tutorial section and puzzle sections. Level 2 takes place in the Tech Tower of the magic academy which has a technological and futuristic theme. There are many combat sections in this level involving Fire Drones and Ice Drones.
GAME DESIGN
The game is designed in third-person adventure standards. In addition to basic movement, camera and jump controls, Aurah is able to cast spells using left-click and right-click for Water Orb and Flamethrower respectively. However, the spells are unlocked as the player progresses through the game. These spells can be used in combat and in puzzle sections as well. For example, Aurah can cast Flamethrower to melt frozen gates. Aurah can also use Water Orbs to activate switches from a distance.
