Split-Screens
A Co-op Third Person Adventure
Story Summary
The game takes place in an AI testing facility where two robot sisters have just gained sentience and are now combining their newly discovered abilities trying to escape.
Project Breakdown
-
7 weeks half time (4 hours/day)
-
Created using Unreal Engine 5
-
Focus on set dressing/level design
-
Create a vertical slice-like experience.
-
Create a fun Co-Op experience.
-
Marketplace assets/plugins used
Advanced Locomotion System
Megascans
Sci-fi office assets
Robot Factory assets
Flythroughs
Pana Critical Path
Sunny Critical Path
The Sisters
Character by Linnea Thydell!
Movement & Mantling
Pana can easily traverse bigger gaps with her faster movement speed, bigger jumps and ability to mantle.
"The Shrink Ray"
Pana is equipped with a shrink ray that is able to shrink objects with the company sigil. She can use this help her and her sister navigate the environment.
Shrink
Sunny sports the company sigil in the back of her head, so with some help from her big sis she can shrink herself down and traverse narrow spaces and enter crevices.
Magnetism & Stasis
The little sister is capable of picking up certain objects and moving them through the air. She can then lock these objects into place with her stasis ability to help herself and her sister reach places they couldn't before.
Tsan Genomics - Combat Bot
Pana
Sunny
Tsan Genomics - Idol Bot
Character by Linnea Thydell!
Level Flowchart
Keeping the players busy
The greatest challenge in creating a two-player experience is keeping both players engaged, especially when they have the same objective. This became particularly difficult given the differences in movement between the players. Early on in the testing, one player often ended up solving most of the puzzles while the other acted only as a helper. To address this, I examined games like It Takes Two and Portal, where players are separated but periodically brought together within the same environment. This approach allowed me to design two distinct single-player experiences and then layer on co-op elements that forced players to interact with each other."
Design Techniques
Level Art
Signposting
To direct the players where to go, I employed various forms of signposting throughout the game. It was essential to me that the signposting didn't become repetitive or mundane, so I made an effort to incorporate it into either the level's dressing or its geometry whenever possible.
Affordance
To indicate where Pana could move within the level, I utilized the concept of affordance. I frequently placed cardboard pieces on the edges of areas where Pana could use her mantle ability, to assist the player in learning where they could go and quickly determining whether they could reach a particular location."
Signifiers
To highlight specific objects and locations in the game world I used the concept of signifiers. For example by placing the company sigil on objects that can be interacted with such as the shrinkable doors and the boxes. I also used green lights to indicate functioning machinery that could be interacted with in some way such as the lift, buttons, and the crane control panel.
Contrasting Areas
As the characters frequently relied on each other to advance to new areas, I made sure to design the environments of both players in a way that contrasts effectively. This not only prevents visual fatigue but also helps players easily locate their partner. For instance, if one character is in a worn-down area, I ensure that the other is in a cleaner one.
Leading Lines
The sci-fi aesthetic was a perfect fit for utilizing LED lights as leading lines to guide players in the right direction. However, I made sure to avoid making it too obvious and instead placed them in a way that blends naturally with the environment.
Pre Production
I have always loved character driven split screen adventure games and have always dreamed of making my very own, so when I heard my fellow TGA student Linnea Thydell was working on a pair of characters we very quickly decided this could be a perfect collaboration project. She would provide me with two game ready characters and gave me creative freedom to basically do whatever I want with them in regards to the story and gameplay, all I had to do was make it fit the mood of the characters. I thought this would be the perfect project to combine all the skills I have learned so far in unreal and started by compiling a list of things I wanted to accomplish with this vertical slice.
-
Practice my blue-printing by coding a lot of the gameplay by myself.
​
-
Make the two characters moveset very different from each other and have them synergize in a fun way.
​
-
Take the level from sketch all the way to being fully set dressed to practice my level art.
​
-
Incorporate a lot of interactivity between the two players.
​
-
Try to improve the established level design with my set dressing.
​
-
Avoid having one player be able to dominate the experience.
Coming up with the abilities
Character Roles
I wanted both characters to be vastly different in movesets from one another but for their abilities to still work well together in a puzzle setting. I ended up settling on the idea that one of the characters is a more traditional third person character and the other one is a more juvenile helper style character. I looked heavily at resident evil revelations 2 for inspiration and decided I wanted the two players to frequently use their abilities to interact with the other player to more heavily emphasize the teamwork aspect of the experience.
Character Synergy
I decided to give Sunny the ability to use magnetism on certain objects to lift and move them around. I thought this would be a nice compliment to the other players ability to mantle and could provide fun platforming challenges. By having Sunny be able to help Pana with platforming i wanted Pana to be able to help Sunny progress in some way so i decided that Pana should be able to shrink Sunny to help her go through small crevices and reach places Pana cant.
Character renders by Linnea Thydell!
Dance animation made by Nat Pettersson!
Space planning
For my space planning during this piece I looked a lot at the escape sequence in the original portal. I wanted it to feel like you were truly walking behind the scenes to really highlight the feeling that you were escaping. To further highlight the behind the scenes areas I designed Sunny's path halfway through to look like it was part of a “Company tour” . I did this so that I could put a bigger focus on things looking clean and showcase friendly, this would also provide a bigger contrast to when you are walking behind the scenes and you see what they don't really show the public. I started by coming up with the served spaces I wanted in my experiences and then I connected them with servant spaces.
Tsar Genomics Backrooms - Servant space
​​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This is the backrooms and development department of a giant tech company, meetings and tech pitches take place here. It leads to a giant server room and overlooks the robot development as well.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
With this area i wanted to convey the feeling of contrast, i
wanted the character to look out of place to sell the fact that
they have escaped and that they are not supposed to be here. But i also wanted it to contrast well against the other players location as well. I wanted to convey the two sidedness of the corporation by having one part be super clean and consumer friendly looking and the other be very rundown.
The Dumping Ground - Served space
​​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This area is where all the failed prototype robots go. They are not completely destroyed, they are more so lying around as a source for extra parts. It also serves as a kind of a show area for visitors to showcase the amount of prototypes they go through when making the robots.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
I wanted this area to contrast heavily against the other more clean sci fi looking area that Pana starts in. I also wanted an area where it made sense that the area was split into two parts and the conveyor belts worked well for that. It also had to make sense that the cubes would just be lying around and a dump was perfect for that.
The Server Room - Served space
​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This is the server room that handles a lot of the corporation's computing power. It overlooks the robot development and have a window in the far end of the room for visitors to be able to look in when they are touring the department.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
I wanted a room with platforming that could still fit the theme of being clean and sci-fi looking, i got the idea of giant servers that could act as platforms and thought that would fit well with the idea. I then added in the pipes and conveyor belts in the upper end of the to include some more variety.
The Press Conferance - Served space
​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This is the corporation's area for showcasing their products to consumers and investors. The backstage area is also part of the “tour” of the corporation so the way in and out of the area is designed to showcase a lot of the other departments (Glass walkway over the dumping ground, windows into the lounge area.)
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
This area was to serve as a way for the player to really understand the stasis ability. Since the area was so simple I decided to focus a lot more on the environmental storytelling and scenic aspect. I wanted it to look like the conference got interrupted so i left a bunch of robots in the crowd as claquers.
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This is where the robots are primarily built. The area is divided into different sections and helper bots can be seen walking around in the background helping with construction.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
In the block out of this area I wanted the players to be able to see each other and interact over a distance. I thought the concept of a construction area being connected to this “tour” area would make a perfect fit. I also wanted this area to utilize moving platforms so cranes carrying containers fit in perfectly.
The Lounge - Servant space
​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This acts as an area for visitors and is also part of the “tour”, it showcases the combat bots and has plenty of seatings and screens that display promotional material for investors and visitors.It also overlooks the robot development to give them an idea how they are made.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
This area was meant to serve as a complimentary area to the construction area. Having the crane controls be on this side and having the windows be cracked promoted the interactivity between the players that I wanted with the initial blockout while still being believable.
​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This area is the backend of the big furnace room. This is where all the robots that are gonna be destroyed fully go.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout?
Since this is the area where the most intricate puzzles take place I needed it to be a space where I could go kinda crazy with the verticality and have multiple boxes lying around without it looking strange or out of place so another junk inspired area worked perfectly.
The Pit- Served space
​​
​
-
What is the area's purpose in the world? This room acts as a giant furnace where they melt down all the robots they can no longer use. The area also got malfunctioning robots walking around which has forced everything to be automated and operated from above. This makes it the perfect way for the sisters to escape since there are no defenses to stop them.
​
-
How does the theme compliment the blockout? I wanted a fairly simple area that mostly just served to be scenic and act as a rewarding vista after the big puzzle room. I have always had a soft spot for giant menacing pits so I decided to finally do one. I also wanted a logical reason to incorporate some hostile robots right before the finale and thought that malfunctioning robots taking over a part of the facility made sense theme wise and gave the sisters a logical escape route.
When designing the press conference area for sunny i had big trouble deciding if i wanted the character to come in from backstage or if i wanted them to approach the stage from the front. Since both options seemed so cool in my head and gave me many ideas, I decided to utilize a crazy ivan approach and have the player come from backstage first having to go to the top of the room to fetch a box and then turn around and approach from the front.
Game & Level Design
Design Techniques
Crazy-Ivan
Design by subtraction
I realized that by imposing limitations on my characters abilities it gave me more options to make more interesting scenarios without frustrating players. By limiting what objects Sunny could pick up it would suddenly be more interesting actually finding the thing you needed to progress. And by removing Sunny's ability to shrink with a button press and instead having Pana shoot her with a shrink ray, I suddenly gave the players a reason to look for small crevices and gaps in the environment that Pana could shoot through.
I wanted to try to make the tutorial levels in my game fit into the narrative somehow. This proved to be very challenging since my character's abilities are not super conventional. To showcase Sunny's abilities I placed a tv screen and a booth at the start of her level with a “Commercial” that the corporation made to show all of her abilities to potential clients. For Pana's shrink ray i decided to have a powerpoint presentation at the back of the room that gives all the information, this to show that the product was being pitched to corporate before Pana got there and everyone fled.
Hourglass Design
Since I wanted to give a sense of good progression to both players as they traversed I decided to utilize hourglass design. This allowed me to make decently open areas that later pinched into a single route. This worked very well with the co op since I could make the pinch require the other player's input, making it impossible for one player to get too far ahead of the other.
Prison-Cell Gameplay
I decided to heavily emphasize Sunny's pathetic jump height by making all of her navigational puzzles super simple and very obvious but requiring a lot of effort on her part. A ledge where Pana could have simply just mantled over requires Sunny to take a long detour, pick up a box, carry it all the way back and then step on it. I did this because I thought it would be a fun juxtaposition and to highlight the “little sister” feel of the character.
Diegetic Tutorials
Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu
1. Introduction (ki)
I once again decided to use a 4 act structure for this level.
Pana gets introduced to how she can mantle and to the concept of shrinking doors with the shrink ray.
Sunny gets introduced to moving boxes with magnetism and locking things in place using stasis.
Panas platforming sections now require her to utilize her full moveset; she also learns she can shrink Sunny and her boxes.
2. Development (sho)
Sunny gets introduced to being shrunk and traversing small spaces, she also learns she can now help Pana reach higher areas by using stasis on boxes for her to mantle.
3. Twist (ten)
The players now have all barriers between them broken and they can utilizie their abilities freely on each other without restrictions. To clear the final room they will have to use everything they have learned so far.
4. Conclusion (ketsu)
The players are rewarded with a nice view and a final trek to the finish with minimal obstacles as a way to relax and collect themselves.
Before and After
Full Playthrough
Reflections
This is definitely my favorite project I have been a part of so far and I am extremely proud of how it turned out in the end. It has been so rewarding to see this experience take shape from just a bunch of blocks and ideas and to have collaborated with such wonderful and talented people!
I feel like I have grown in every aspect of my game development, from having to script a character controller from scratch, implementing all the abilities and character interactions to then making everything come together in the art and story department as well. This experience has given me even more respect for games like It takes two and Portal. Having two players walk around and do stuff at their own leisure really adds a lot of complications both tech and design wise and it's been hard but super fun and rewarding to try and solve these issues as they popped up.
I also feel like this is some of the best and most creative set dressing I have pulled off so far. I think limiting myself in the previous piece really elevated my creativity and I truly felt spoiled by having access to more than just infinity blade assets this time. I also think I really elevated my understanding for lighting and reflection probes in this project and it's so fun that there are still so many aspects of unreal that I have left to explore. I think this piece truly represents the kinds of experiences that I like to create.
Of course there are plenty of things that I would have liked to fix if I was given more time but for the time allotted i accomplished what i set out to do much better than i expected.
​
Things I would have liked to do a little bit better!
1. Spent a little more time on the VFX implementation. VFX was definitely not an area I spent a lot of energy on but if I had been allotted the time I would have liked to implement a material that disintegrated and rebuilt the character when objects got hit with the shrink ray. I also would have liked to look into a cooler solution for visualizing the stasis.
2. The camera for the second player is far from perfect and could have used some more finetuning to have it not clip through the environment in some spots, but since I probably won't be coding a character controller from scratch anytime soon I decided to spend my energy on other aspects instead.
3. Some areas are definitely a little bit too dark and I'm definitely gonna add in some extra lights to make the player path more clear, especially the part where Pana is walking on top of the conveyor belts.
It's been so fun collaborating with Linnea on this project and it's been an honor making her amazing characters come to life!
Thanks for reading!
​