Tel: +46 76 188 86 39
Mail: fabianadlertz@gmail.com
Fabian
Adlertz
game & Level Designer
Stockholm, Sweden
About
Trenchcoat Conspiracy is a noir-themed point & click narrative heavy, single player game. You play as Vincent Ward, a man wrongfully convicted for the last 5 years. You must clear your name by solving puzzles, collecting evidence, and interrogating those who’ve wronged you.
Details
Roles: Level Design & Gameplay Design
Genre: Point and Click, Detective
Engine: Unity
Team Size: 9
Project Length: 5 Weeks
Platform: PC
Maximum Play Length: 10 min
My Contributions to the project
Level Design: For this project I was the level designer for 3 out of 4 levels in the game. I also designed the puzzles for these levels.
Teamwork: During the project I worked closely together with all team members, especially artists in the project to create 3D assets, correct lighting and UI elements that fit the overall theme and to avoid miscommunication and create a good work flow.
Game Loop
When we designed the game we wanted to make a classic point and click detective puzzle game heavy on narrative with twists and turns.
Investigate area to see what can be interacted with.
Solve gameplay puzzles in that area.
Progress the narrative and enter the next area.
Level Design Process- Apartment Level
Since we wanted to make a very narrative heavy game we decided to make linear levels with puzzles that needs to be completed for the player to progress. The puzzles also needed to be connected to the narrative and tell bits of the story through the level design.
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Research
Since we were doing a Noire themed game I wanted the level to fit the theme and feel authentic so the first thing I did was research on the time period through movies and similar games.
Concept Stage
I drew up concept versions of the level and the puzzle. Putting the sketches up on Miro for other team members to give their thoughts and feedback since we worked online.
Greybox
I went in to Unity and using probuilder made a rough version of the level and playtested to make sure the flow was what I aimed for.
Iteration
After finding a flow that felt good and a structure that I was satisfied with I started to place out the 3D-meshes and the puzzle clues. Yet again playtesting continuously was key and moving the clues around accordingly.
Final Result
After a bunch of playtesting and work with the lighting of the level, to both fit the noire theme that we worked hard to achieve and to guide the player through the level. I did this together with the 3D-artists in my team and this is the final result. I also decided to put objects in the foreground to create a bigger sense of depth.
Scroll through
Level progression & Player Guidance
Click for full image
Puzzle Design
The puzzle is designed to fit the point and click genre and emphasize the Noire Theme and to make the player want to investigate and explore the level. Some of the clues are also presented in a way that they tell a story about what has happened. The ring that has been left by the main characters wife, the note that give some idea of why the character was in prison.
Puzzle step by step
Objective: Open Safe
To open the safe the player need to figure out the 6-digit combination.
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Step 1: Find 1st note
Finding the first note that says "When we got married" and a picture of a ring. This gives the player the first clue of how to figure out the safe code.
Step 2: Find the duct tape
The duct tape is a seemingly unimportant misc item but could come to good use.
Step 3: Find the 2nd Note
The note has a message to the player from the characters wife Debra as she reminds him of the code to the safe. The note also gives a hint on how to figure out the code and gives away the first 3 digits but the rest is missing.
Step 4: Combine the torn notes
The two notes matches with each other and if the player combine the two torn notes in their inventory they will get a new item called "Two torn notes" and the prompt "Need to repair it before I can read it".
5: Repair with Duct Tape
After combining the notes the player then need to combine it with the Duct Tape which repairs the note and gives the player a full note. This gives them the hint to find the ring and to get the final clue.
6: Find Ring and Inspect
The full note indicates to the player to inspect the ring. When inspecting the ring the player will notice the date that's carved inside 03/02/04 which would fit the 6-digit code to the safe.
Other Levels
Level Design Process- Wardens Office
This level was made for narrative purposes as this is a climatic moment of the game. In this sequence the player is suppose to interrogate the warden of the prison. Even though it was a short sequence it still needed to feel authentic and set the tone for the interrogation.
Research
Grey Box
To achieve the authenticity in the level I decided to do some research. Finding a lot of references helped a lot with the entire process.
I went straight in to unity and started with a Grey box. This to get a very clear picture of how the level should look.
Final Result
For the final result I yet again worked a lot with the lighting. The lighting was key to create a clear silhouette of the warden which I wanted to get the players attention since it sticks out clearly.
Level Design Process- Wife's Apartment
This is the final level of the game were the player goes to his wife's last known location, her apartment. The apartment is locked, to get in the player needs to unlock the door by pick locking it. The level is designed to build up suspense to the games finale. Offering up a few narrative items to inspect.
Grey Box
Since research had already been done for the first apartment level I went straight into Unity and started blocking out a level. This to as quickly as possible get a good idea of how the final version of the level would look.
Iteration
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After the grey boxing I started placing out meshes and the narrative items. Playtesting was as always key to make sure that the placement of the items wouldn't be missed by the player.
Final Result
The light was yet again a key element to the level. Having spotlights that leads the player forward making a clear path through the apartment. I also wanted the light to highlight all the narrative items. The painting is clearly visible above the couch and on the kitchen table is a lamp that highlights the note left by the wife. When the note is read by the player a phone starts ringing all the way in the that triggers the final conversation with the wife.
Items to Investigate
Painting
Painting of the main character and his wife
Note
Note left by characters wife.
Phone
