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• About the game

• Inspiration

Roles

• - Level Design

• - Lighting Design

• - Audio

• Reflection

11 people

Project: 7 weeks

Unreal engine

2024

Bloodbound is a local co-op 2D platformer about twins trying to find their way out of an eerie and dark place.They are connected by a thread. This mechanic serves as both a limitation and a tool - restricting the player in certain ways while also offering opportunities for creative problem solving.The journey they make in the game is the time they spend in their mother's womb.Throughout the game the players hear muffled sounds and they can read what is said on text you run by.In the end they meet an eel which is the boss battle of the game. It has a symbolism connected to the thread. In the final level of the game the eel makes the whole world fall apart, portraying the birth of the children.

During this game project each team member pitched a game idea, and we chose the one that the narrative designer made.It's inspired by the red thread of fate, a concept from Chinese and Japanese folklore. The legend says that an invisible red thread, tied around the little fingers or ankles of two people, connects those who are destined to meet or be together.The main references we used were Inside for its mood and Unravel 2 for its gameplay.

After defining what the game was about with the design team, me and the other level designer had a brainstorming session about different level design tools we could use. We based the discussion on these abilities and restrictions:Abilities:
- Run
- Jump
- Use rope to swing & hang fromRestrictions:
- Fixed length of the ropeA lot of the level design tools we came up with were based on enhancing the movement of the players, mainly by adding force to the movement.

Me and the other level designer discussed different ways to use the rope since this was the main feature both in gameplay, visually and narratively.After this I did some paper design for different scenarios.

Being a platformer we thought measures were extra important, so I did this early on.

Having constraints inspires me when I create something, it forces me to think more creatively.The narrative was one of those things. At first we had them as text throughout the game when you walked by. But since they were spoken by people outside of the womb of the mother, we thought a muffled recordings with big reverbs would give the narrative more space and have a bigger impact on the player. It also gave a nice pacing throughout the game.

In the fourth level you're being chased by the boss from the previous level who's tearing down the place.Since the pace was going to be high I chose level design tools that supported this type of gameplay - the pipe, bubble and jellyfish.The rope in the game was a bit unreliable, and while it was a good gameplay mechanic in a calm environment it didn't suit high pace gameplay. So I designed the level in a way that didn’t require players to rely on it.I angled the pipe that added force to the players to push them up and forward, increasing the movement speed and therefore the intensity and sense of urgency.

It's always tricky if there are places the players can't see where they'll end up.I tried to have as few of these as I could, but where there was one, I made sure that was a safe place to land. If the players saw the danger beforehand, I made it a bit more challenging to create tension.

Working with verticality, I found that allowing big downward jumps suited the level's focus on speed.While jumping blindly may not be ideal, the single path in these areas made it logical. Since it's a speed-run level, players tend to act impulsively rather than think things through.

It was important to be able to run through the level as fast as possible without any major stops.I tried out distances jumping on the jellyfish to make sure you could just press forward and still make it across.

I increased the spawn rate of the bubbles for this level so the player didn't have to wait too long if they missed a bubble.

Up to this point the player had only been on a linear path, but I wanted to introduce options for two reasons:- To give the player a new element to play with to keep the gameplay evolving
- If the players fall down from the upper part there's a lower level to fall down on that might save them

In the boss battle, the music was in 4/4, but I switched to 7/8 and increased the tempo to raise the intensity.I also used hospital samples, like patient pulse monitor signals, which felt urgent and stressful, adding more throughout the level to boost the tension.

At one point I modulate to another key, this is an effective way to increase intensity in a song I think.

After the trigger to the modulation track the boss appears and the sound associated with the boss is included in the song.

The song ends with the same chords as the boss defeat but extends to fit the final fall when the game ends and the children are born. The vocals fade out, leaving only the hospital sounds.

My main goal with the lighting design was:
- To create lighting similar to the team's references, which was dramatic, high contrast lighting with volumetric fog.
- To make it resemble the lighting in a hospital
- To create different lighting scenarios depending on where you were, sometimes backlit to enhance the silhouette of the characters for example.