Amari's Arcane Adventures in Aurelia

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Introduction

Amari's Arcane Adventures in Aurelia is a linear 2D roleplaying/fighting game in which the player takes on the role of Amari Dwin'rae, a newly-graduated student of arcane magic, and follows her on her quest to learn more about her abilities. After some introductory story, the players are presented with the main map of the game world on which they can select their next battle arena. After completing each of these levels for the first time, more of the main map is revealed to the player, and another stage is unlocked until they have successfully finished each of the game's ten main fights. Throughout this experience, the story is expanded upon with intermittent dialogues and the player is able to unlock new abilities and level up certain character stats. The game's story is concluded after the tenth and final fight after which the player can revisit any of the previous battles with all of their new abilities unlocked or even start a new game to try out a different character build.

The game also contains an autosave feature that automatically saves a player's progress each time they return to the game's main map so that the game doesn't have to be beaten in a single sitting. A normal full playthrough of the game takes approximately 25 minutes.

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Design of Game World and Storytelling

A short synopsis of the game's introductory story can be read below (and also within the game):

After graduating from the Luminous Lorehold – a prestigious magical academy – Amari Dwin’rae was excited to put all of her knowledge to good use. Planning on becoming a “Reclaimer,” an explorer tasked with unearthing Aurelia’s many lost artifacts and ruins, she quickly sets out on an adventure to hone her arcane craft. You will follow along as she travels through the many different environments and biomes of her world and grows even more powerful with each challenge she faces. Will she earn her sought-after title as one of the great Reclaimers and make sense of some worrying visions that have begun plaguing her, or will she fall at the hands of one of the many dangerous creatures that stand in her way?

From this foundation, the story and world-building within my game are developed further as the player progresses through it. For example, a player can explore and discover more about the game's world - Aurelia - through the visuals presented on the game's main map and the stages on which each of their battles takes place. Also, the story of the game is advanced through the internal dialogues of Amari that players are presented with at different points throughout the game. With all of this working in tandem, I hoped to create an environment in which a player would be more invested in the game overall, and in the end, would be more satisfied with the conclusion of the game.

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Game Play Goals

I had a couple of main gameplay goals in mind when developing this game, but out of them all, there was one that I believed to be the most important: advancement and completion. Within the roleplaying genre of games, I always thought that this aspect was one of the most important because, without a feeling of growth and improvement, the gameplay could easily get stale. To ensure that this goal was met sufficiently, I added two main elements to my game: the level-up system and the unlocking of new abilities as the player progresses. In this way, a player can almost always go into their next battle with something new in their arsenal that they didn't have in previous fights, and also, they can customize their experience in whichever way they choose through the character stats that they choose to rank up after each new fight. With these in place, I feel as though my game provides a satisfying feeling of progression throughout the entirety of the game and really highlights the fact that, after each fight, the player character - and by extension, the player's experience - is being iterated upon in some way. 

On top of this gameplay goal, I was hoping to implement the goals of immersion and discovery within my game, as well. To lend to the immersion side of it, I ensured that there was an overarching story - and some dialogue to go along with it - that drew the player into the game world and made them more invested in reaching the end of the game. With these elements, I hoped that the players would feel more connected to the story I was attempting to tell and would feel more inclined to help the game's main character reach her goals. To build upon the game's goal of discovery, on the other hand, I relied heavily upon the main map of the game along with each of the individual fighting stages. As the player progresses through the game, more and more of the game's main map is revealed to them, and in each battle, they are presented with a new and interesting arena that correlates to their location within the game's world. Therefore, as a player moves through the game they are not only presented with the previously-discussed new abilities and faced with finding out how they work, but they are also able to further explore the world of Aurelia.

Overall, there were many gameplay goals I hoped to be able to achieve within my game, but I focused most of my attention on those mentioned above, and in the end, I feel as though they were successfully implemented in the final product.

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Workload

This game was mostly built from the ground up without utilizing almost any of the assets provided in class. I worked on this project by myself but used many different assets that I found on the Unity Asset Store throughout the process. I also used this Youtube series as a base guide for the combat within the game, but added many other additional features and changes to what was discussed within those videos, both to the combat itself and to the game as a whole.

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Contribution

Again, as this was a solo project, I was the sole contributor to every aspect of this project: I wrote the scripts, procured the assets, and developed the story on my own.

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Attributions

Background Image: Magic Vectors by Vecteezy.com

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