Artist Statement
aMIdST is a puzzle mystery game about uncovering the main character’s identity through narrative and exploration. In order to create an experience that engages the player with both narrative and puzzle challenges, we interwove them. For example, to unlock a passcode, you need to read a journal entry about the main character to learn their birthday. The puzzles and mystery narrative also parallel each other, inducing a sense of curiosity that triggers exploration and payoff in a satisfying way.
In aMIdST, the player takes on the role of someone who has just woken up in an unfamiliar room surrounded by fog; in order to disperse the fog and learn more about who they are, they must solve various puzzles. We wanted to design a game that uses narrative and challenges to rouse reflection and accomplishment for players post completion. Additionally, we aimed to create a game that would be relatively easy to pick up but also exist in a digital space, so we drew from the concept of escape rooms and placed it in a digital context.
Overall, we designed aMIdST to encourage players to overcome challenges, learn about narratives, and explore spaces, which all come together to contribute to the suspense and immersion of the experience.
Target Audience
People who would enjoy aMIdST include escape room and puzzle enthusiasts, as we incorporate puzzles in an escape room style game with a digital medium. Additionally, those who enjoy uncovering stories with an element of mystery would enjoy the game because we weave narrative elements throughout the game that culminate in a plot twist. Our target audience connects to the two main types of fun we wanted to evoke, with narrative through the story and challenge through the puzzles. Given our digital medium, people who enjoy video games and Roblox games specifically would likely find aMIdST to be up their alley. In terms of age, anyone nine and up who can read and use logic should be able to complete our puzzles, but because of some elements of suspense/mystery, we might advise our audience to be aged fifteen and up.
Formal Elements, MDA, Types of Fun
We built aMIdST with Formal Elements in mind, including:
Players: aMIdST is a single-player game with a single role, and we use single player versus game for our interaction pattern, using puzzles to pose challenges. We chose to stick with one player because it allows the player to collect all the pieces of the narrative, and since the game includes several chain reactions, it made the most sense to restrict our model to a single player versus game pattern.
Objectives: The objective of aMIdST is to solve the puzzles while also discovering all pieces of the story, aligning with the objective categories of solution and exploration. Players eventually want to walk out of the cabin with the fog cleared and a clearer idea of their identity. All the puzzles in our current slice lead up to finding a key and unlocking a door in the second room that allows them to leave the cabin.
Outcomes: The player either “wins” by solving all of the puzzles, or “loses” if they do not complete the final puzzle.
Rules: The most important rules in aMIdST are those restricting actions and determining effects. For example, the player’s health will be damaged if they touch the fog in the second room without solving the first room, restricting the space they can explore. Additionally, the player cannot see the movement of the eyes to solve the first room’s puzzle until they pick up a photo related to the narrative. The different chain reactions of the game thus correspond to rules determining effects.
Resources: Throughout the game, the player has “narratives” that appear as text boxes on their screen to give them more information and sometimes hints. There are also other items in the game that players use to solve the puzzles (e.g. photo, diary, key), and they must also use an outside device to access a link for one of the puzzles.
Boundaries: The boundaries of the game are the two rooms in the cabin and the digital space they encompass.
Dynamics
While we do not have an explicit timer, the drive to figure out the puzzles as fast as possible contributes to the challenge aesthetic, and the different pieces of the story contribute to the narrative aesthetic as described below.
Aesthetics of Fun
Challenge: The different puzzles of each room are obstacles that the player must overcome to complete the game. The puzzles are connected to the narrative but also to each other, where the player might need to figure out a code from one part of the room and notice where to use the code in order to solve the puzzle.
Narrative: The narrative of a confused character on a journey to disperse fog and find their identity brings together the game, as there are pieces of the story tied to specific locations and/or items in the room, and many items may provide a clue to the character’s identity.
Other aesthetics connected to our game are discovery, as the player explores the space of the rooms to complete the puzzles, as well as fantasy because the player takes on the role of someone with an unknown identity, and sensation through a sense of mystery and suspense.
Core Loops/Architecture, Player Relationships, Tone
Since our game is a slice, each room represents a gameplay loop. Players are able to move through the puzzle and narrative flow to complete the room, which unlocks the next room and so on until the narrative concludes.
We chose to have each puzzle loop be housed with a room of the house so that the physical architecture of the game map parallels the play style. This helps each loop have a conclusive arc, where one set of puzzles is clearly finished once the player is able to enter the next room. If we were to further build out the game, this loop structure would help to further strengthen the relationship between the physical and mental map, which could lead to interesting twists later on.
We also decided against having any NPCs so that we could further the narrative, that way players can empathize with the main character. This also means that our hint system comes from the thoughts of the main character rather than as pointers from outside sources, which increases the connection between the player and character.
Since aMIdST is a puzzle mystery, the simple soundscape of the ticking clock, footsteps, and instrumental music as well as the absence of any other characters contributes to an unsettling tone. Players get to feel the same eeriness the main character would feel when waking up in a puzzle cabin full of poison mist with no memory.
System Map/Models
Figure 1: A Concept Map of aMIdST’s puzzle and narrative structure
Figure 2. Mental Model/Map of the puzzles and narratives in aMIdST
Playtesting and Iteration
Playtest 1 (Gilbert): Testable Core
Our primary objectives from our first playtest were to determine whether the gameplay mechanics of our physical prototype demonstrated promise for a significant level of player engagement. For this playtest, we had modeled all the puzzles of our first room and our team members made the sound effects and controlled the room’s moving components by hand.
Key Insights:
- Positives: It was fun to solve the first room’s puzzles and interact with the various objects in the world.
- Negatives: Onboarding required some more work, since it was difficult at times to understand what exactly to do with the items the player was presented with.
Feedback and Changes:
From this playtest we understood that we needed to incorporate a hint/player guidance system to direct the player towards different parts of the map as required by the game. We had already incorporated several lines of internal player dialogue which we displayed to the player through slips of paper, but we soon realized that we needed these lines to be more clear and direct in terms of what the player should shift their focus towards. To fix this, we determined a set of alternative dialogue lines which would hopefully clear up any major player confusion. Additionally, we confirmed the need to make our puzzles connected to our narrative to allow for ludonarrative cohesion; for our digital version, we would make sure the player had sufficiently explored the space and interacted with narrative elements (e.g. family photo) before allowing them to solve the puzzle.
View of our physical prototype with attached paper elements (family picture, pipes, character piece, clock, painting, fog) and floor plan
Playtest 1a (Ellie’s friend): Testable Core
Guiding Questions: Does the flow of puzzles in the first room work? What are points of confusion?
Key Insights:
- Positives: It was fun to explore different parts of the room to collect pieces of the narrative, and the moving eyes/clock were interesting to observe
- Negatives: It can be confusing which aspects of the room are important to interact with, and which ones are simply for decoration
Feedback and Changes: Based on the insight that interactivity could be confusing, in our digital implementation, we aimed to clearly differentiate parts that players could interact with (as a sort of hint or in-game onboarding). Additionally, given feedback that turning the wheel for pipes back and forth could be unintuitive because the different directions work against each other, we switched to a button input in our digital implementation (thus removing ambiguities about how to turn the wheel).
Playtest 2 (Analog team): https://youtu.be/fRJ868znJeQ
Guiding Questions: Does our updated hint and dialogue system work better than in the previous playtest?
Key Insights:
- Positives: The game was found to be interesting and had the player engaged for the duration of the playtest.
- Negatives: The interaction system for various puzzles in the room was unintuitive and caused player confusion.
Feedback and Changes: From this playtest we learned that the puzzles in the game were engaging, but the player interaction system led to confusion. This was a major issue, since it hampered player enjoyment of the puzzles and introduced frustration. Players were unsure of whether to click, press E, or use an alternative method to interface with each puzzle. For example, the buttons that the player had to press in the game were interacted with via the number keys on the keyboard. This was different from mouse clicks or the use of E on the keyboard, that other elements of the room required. There were numbers placed next to the buttons on the puzzle but this was still not sufficient to convey to players that they needed to use the number keys on the keyboard. To fix this problem we began shifting from using number keys to simply using clicks on buttons to recognize when they are pressed (which connects to the rule for puzzles to have feedback).
Buttons controlled by keyboard numbers
Playtest 3 (Krishnan): https://youtu.be/C65Oej4wcSk
Guiding Questions: Does our new hint and dialogue system work better than in the previous playtest? Are the puzzles interesting in both the first and second room?
Key Insights:
- Positives: The puzzles in the game were once again found to be quite interesting.
- Negatives: The player onboarding and hint system requires additional work since it was still not entirely intuitive.
Feedback and Changes: In the build of the game used for this playtest, we had attempted to further clarify several elements of the game through in-game hints, some of which were not entirely successful. With the eye puzzle for example, we had placed a big red L next to the painting to indicate that the eye movement sequence began with a look to the left with the L signifying the letter “L” from left. However, players did not understand this and were confused as to the inclusion of this geometry. The players did not also get enough visual feedback when they were taking damage, as the screen only began to turn red when health decreased a 25% threshold. Due to this, players were not privy to the main health decrease as the health bar communicating this information was very small and tucked away in the top right side of the screen. We remedied these issues by incorporating a light system to communicate the start of the eye movement sequence and increased the player’s rate of damage taken so they are more quickly visually informed of when they are about to die.
Final Playtest 1 (Sharon / Ale): https://youtu.be/ZbVlsGv31Wo
For the first final playtest, we were mainly looking to see whether or not the puzzles were solvable and if we effectively evoked the aesthetics of fantasy, narrative and challenge. Overall, we received fairly positive feedback from our testers—with every puzzle they solved, they let out a cheer and indicated definite satisfaction and enjoyment with their progress.
Pictured: Sharon calling in backup for the picture puzzle
However, we still received very valuable feedback and ideas for future iterations. First, the onboarding room. This was an improvement made based on previous iterations since we recognized that players may not already be familiar with the Roblox interface, so we gave them 3 basic tasks to perform that they would need for the puzzles. However, this playtest showed that users also need to know how to access items from the backpack and put them back since it takes up a large portion of the screen.
Future iterations should also regulate the level of difficulty for the sliding puzzle (where you have to rearrange the pieces), or make the reference picture larger to help the player. Due to time constraints, the image is rearranged randomly, so the level of difficulty is completely up to chance. We are also hoping to integrate the riddle into the game so that players do not have to go to a link on a separate device, but if we kept it as a separate link, we could rewrite the link to sound more on theme (i.e. bit.ly/riddle). Lastly, in order to draw more attention to the diary after they read the riddle, we can add a light above the diary that turns on after the sliding puzzle is completed.
Final Playtest (Elysia): https://youtu.be/tTtz6r8FRyM
For the final playtest we were trying to determine whether the two rooms worked together well as puzzles, and if the player remained engaged throughout the duration of the game without excessive confusion. Players enjoyed playing the game and found the mystery of the game’s atmosphere and puzzles to effectively immerse them into the gameplay.
Through this playtest we found that we largely did achieve what we set out to do, with the playtester being able to solve both puzzles without too much frustration. At various points the player did find themselves stumped by puzzles, whether it be solving the picture puzzle or determining the keypad PIN number in room two. However, unlike the previous playtests where players required us to step in and guide them, the player eventually managed to determine how to progress by themselves, without our aid. We classified this as a success, as all puzzles require a level of trial and error and a certain base level of difficulty is required for solving a puzzle to feel satisfactory.
The one source of confusion was at the end, since we had not implemented the door opening yet, and as such using the key to open the final door did not immediately visually indicate any type of success. The player had to walk through the door and due to this, only realized that they had succeeded when they walked straight through the closed door. This is a relatively small bug and can be easily addressed for future versions of the game. Overall however, we found our game to be a resounding success.
Final Playtest Video (Demonstration)
Final Playtest #1 (Sharon / Ale): https://youtu.be/ZbVlsGv31Wo
Final Playtest #2 (Elysia): https://youtu.be/tTtz6r8FRyM
Game Link
Play aMIdST HERE!
Hints and Progression: Our hints primarily come through parts of our narrative that are triggered when the player gets close to certain objects of importance (e.g. buttons, portrait). These narrative pieces also play into our game progression, as they drive the game forward and allow the player to understand what aspects of the room are significant. There are also some built-in hints to Roblox, such as holding E to pick up items, and the cursor changing when something is clickable.
Onboarding: We have an onboarding room that introduces the basic skills needed (jumping to get out of a chair, walking, picking up items, and pushing buttons). We wanted players to learn by doing, rather than telling them with a screen about how to do everything.
Slice Components
Since our game relies heavily on creating the aesthetics of fantasy and narrative, we invested considerable effort into the visual and sound design, as well as the narrative framework of our game. To amplify the immersive experience, we decided to develop our game on Roblox, which easily fulfills these requirements with its robust features such as a locked first-person view and 3D visuals.
Pictured: View of first room from the bed
To create an air of “mystery”, we shrouded everything in the game in an “eerie,” soft, yellow glow, and added a constant soundtrack with a ticking grandfather clock in the background to induce a feeling of anticipation and tenseness. As for more specific visual components, we added lots of visual cues to indicate the progress of the player. For example, after the player picks up the family photo, this activates the moving eyes of the painting, and in order to ensure players know what is the first “move” in the sequence, there is flashing light that flashes once at the beginning of each sequence loop. For the button sequence, each button the player presses turns white to indicate its push state, and when they solve it, there is a double cue of visual and auditory feedback —the buttons all turn green and there is a loud rumbling sound to indicate that the fog is dispersing.
In the second room, we have a few similar combined visual and audio-based clues, namely with the fog and the locked chest. For the fog, we initially use it as a way to contain the player to the first room, so we shroud the second room in a “mist” and decrease the players health visually (red tinged screen) when they try to enter before dispersing the fog. For the chest, once the player inputs the correct code, there is a dinging sound and a light turns on above the chest to indicate that the chest is now openable and that the player should open the chest.
Pictured: view of second room (pre-fog-dispersing)
Because our game is entirely contained into 2 rooms, our “world building” is primarily focused on the creation of the narrative framework. Additionally, because the premise of the game is that you are playing as an amnesiac, we made sure to balance the amount of evocative narrative to provide in each room. As such, the first room in the story is very bare bones to juxtapose the concept of unknown identity. There are very few instructions—an intentional choice made in order to intensify the feeling of “not knowing.” We also intentionally kept the room very empty (physically) because the first puzzle is of medium difficulty, and we didn’t want to make the first puzzle too confusing lest players quit before becoming engaged.
Pictured: second room from corner
The second room is also fairly spartan, but mostly due to time constraints. It only has items that are pertinent to the second puzzle, and the same bare bones narrative. With more time, we would ideally have a little bit more decor to mimic the idea that the player is slowly learning more about themselves. The current narrative and puzzles do accurately mimic the aforementioned idea, but for future iterations we plan to add more decor and make each room feel “homier” than the next.
Space, Narrative, and Puzzles
After the onboarding room, the screen immediately goes black and fades into view, making it seem like the player is “waking up” in a new story. To convey that they are in an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere, we incorporated windows where they can look outside and see stretches of fields with no other civilization. In addition, there are no NPCs in order to convey a sense of loneliness – they are embarking on a solo journey to search for their identity.
Pictured: view from cottage window
This premise becomes clear when the first narrative text is shown, setting up the idea that the player is waking up without a clear sense of what is going on.
Next, while other escape room type games may provide more information about the character or their surroundings upon further exploration, our game is intentionally bare—the only narrative regarding character recollection we have is the component where the player has to pick up their “family photo” and ponder it, another additive to imply that the character has no idea what is going on.
Pictured: Player can view items in their backpack by pressing the corresponding number key
The core of our game revolves around mini puzzles that intertwine with the narrative, gradually revealing the story and guiding the players towards their ultimate goal of discovering their identity, piece by piece. By completing these puzzles, players unlock the larger puzzle of who they truly are.
To begin the journey, players must first pick up the family photo from the desk, triggering the movement of the eyes. This intentional design choice serves to establish the narrative, hinting at the player’s connection to a family while adding an air of mystery to their identity. The painting, featuring eyes that shift position, and the buttons located beside the pipes are integral elements of the initial puzzle. The player must carefully observe the gaze directions of the eyes (left, right, up, and down), and then decode this sequence to determine the precise order in which they should click the buttons.
Pictured: Narrative hints at the significance of moving eyes in the painting
The buttons are positioned in such a way that indicates north, east, south, and west for easy mapping.
Pictured: Clickable buttons
Once the player successfully clicks the buttons in the correct order, a narrative sequence unfolds, signaling that they have successfully dispelled the fog and encouraging them to proceed to the next room. This inclusion of the fog serves a dual purpose: it not only determines the players’ access to different rooms, but also symbolizes their own “memory fog.” With each room they solve and every bit of fog that dissipates, the player gradually uncovers more of their own backstory, gaining a deeper understanding of their journey.
In the next room, players encounter several elements: a diary resting on the ground, a chest secured with a passcode lock, and a sliding puzzle. The order in which players interact with these components is entirely up to them. When the diary is picked up, it reveals an entry detailing their birthday, serving as a crucial piece of information. To understand the significance of this entry, players must successfully complete the sliding puzzle, which portrays an abandoned cottage nestled in a desolate location. Once again, this imagery alludes to the overall atmosphere of isolation and contributes to the player’s sense of seclusion and mystery.
Pictured: Diary entry describing player’s birthday
Upon successful completion of the sliding puzzle, a URL promptly appears, accompanied by a narrative text which hints at the significance of using a phone for this task. The url leads to a document containing a Riddle. The riddle hints that the diary (“a leather bound”) contains information that is important. The answer to the riddle is a birthday, which corresponds to the passcode next to the chest. To make the connection, players must not only unravel the riddle’s meaning but also search the diary for the corresponding date and pay attention to the input format on the keypad adjacent to the chest.
Pictured: Untouched and completed states of sliding puzzle
Once the player enters the birthday (hint: 010295) as passcode, the chest lights up and a narrative tells them that they have cracked the code. If they fail, the narrative prompts them to try again.
Pictured: Chest is able to open after correct code is entered
Upon opening the chest, they find a gold key, which allows them to walk through the door, signaling the end of the game.
Pictured: Chest contains key that unlocks door. Room completed!
While our playtests indicated that the narrative framework flowed well with the puzzles, we plan to insert more implications that the player is an amnesiac in future iterations because the premise was not as obvious to the playtesters as we hoped.
(Extra Credit)
Accessibility
Throughout our slice, we aimed to include multi-sensory output to increase accessibility and accommodate for a wide range of players. For example, our narrative text may provide guidance for people who are hard of hearing, and sound effects that indicate when puzzles are solved provide additional output for people with visual impairments.
Takeaways
After playing, players may reconsider how they think of the world and their role in it. Playing as someone on a journey to recover their memories and identity will inspire contemplation about what defines their identity in real life. Additionally, at the conclusion of the entire game, our “plot twist” that reveals how the main character was an “alien,” the fog was just “normal” fog, and the entire experience could become a loop that the character willingly enters to forget the truth of how they were exiled from their home planet may inspire thought about humanity, social connection, and belonging.
