DRAKEN CAVE - A Fantasy Adventure
Draken Cave a fantasy-adventure game where players get to explore a medieval town and track down a dragon through help of the villagers.
Worked in a team of 6 as the game and level designer for this project. Fantasy adventure games have their own charm as players are immersed in the game-world. This is something we aimed to showcase through the gameplay and narrative design. The design challenge we addressed was experiential intention through the twist ending in the game.
Timeline: 1 Week – Team of 6
Design Process
← Play the game here
Key Design Aspects
- Narrative – The storyline was crucial to the fantasy theme of the game.
- NPC dialogue – Good dialogue created a flow and promoted player quests.
- Map/UI – Using the map is crucial for the 2D top-down viewpoint of the camera.
- Environment Design – Having an immersive environment that matched the medieval theme made a big impact.
Addressing the week long design challenge of creating an “experiential intention” was something done through the genre and storyline in Draken Cave. Having the player’s think they are in a fantasy game until the plot-twist at the end is a way to directly show the game’s influence on the player experience.
Players exploring through the game and collecting special items for the boss mission at the end, leads to a shocking surprise reveal with them being zapped to a DND session outside of the original game experience.
It places emphasis on the fantasy genre of games and displays the creativity the goes into it!
Environment design was a vital aspect of the game. Keeping the map as simplistic as possible with paths that guide the player was the mission.
These are a few of the town sketches from early on. The final path that leads out of the town is separated so players don’t miss any quests.