Herbal Mission
Herbal mission is a narrative-driven game that players can play as a little witch to craft potions for the people who need in order to run her alchemy business. Players will face moral problems that comes with consequences
Something bad will happen if you don't pay attention
Narrative 丨Musics 丨 Animation
Duration
May 2023 - Aug 2023
Team
6
Tools
Overview
In order to design "Herbal Mission", as the team's writer, my responsibility is to create a complex plot line and mission objectives, ensure that the entire mission process is logically consistent, meaningful, and able to guide players into it. The characters, locations, dialogue, and events involved in a quest must be orchestrated so that the player faces moral decisions at different stages of the quest.
Furthermore, the dosage of medicines and herbs involved in the task must be accurately calculated. This may involve in-game values and algorithms to ensure realistic and challenging outcomes for players to collect, use and dispense potions in missions. I needed to ensure that the player's choices had a real impact on the progress of the mission, adding to the complexity of moral decisions. It is to create difficult moral choices between the players. This means that missions need to be designed so that the player feels plausible and believable about two or more different options. In this specific situation, the player needs to decide whether to rescue a stranger. This decision may be affected by various factors such as the player's values, the relationship of the characters in the game, the impact of previous tasks, etc., thus increasing the complexity of the task design. It is a big required careful design and balance on multiple levels of logic, numerical calculations, and moral choices in order to achieve an engaging and morally-chosen storyline. I refer to some other games, such as potion craft, paper please, etc., to let me have a better logical thinking.
Contributions
Early Level Design
I created the origin Outdoor and Indoor Levels according to our early theme in UE5 ( placing models, creating light sources, adjusting sky color - night). Because the viewing angle we discussed at the beginning was Top-down, I also made some blocks with transparent materials as air walls in order to keep the players 'locked' in the game area.
Background Musics
I implemented two different BGM for the day and night of the game, both of which are about 20 seconds long and can be played in a loop.
For the DAYTIME music, which created by me. I chose a melody without any key changes. The notes progress from low to high, transitioning from a deep tone to an uplifting one, creating a cheerful and vibrant atmosphere
For the NIGHTTIME music, which created by my friend, our idea was to compose a soothing melody for the night, without too much variation or key changes, to highlight the atmosphere of loneliness yet freedom as the player is alone at night
Daytime
Night
Animations
PROTAGONIST
The protagonist has three different animations:
Idle: Standing still
Walking: Swinging arms with big steps
Picking: Crouching when collecting herbs
NPCs
All of the NPCs in the game has two different animations:
Idle: Standing still, Swing, Small movements
Talking: Stretch out hands and wave them, etc.
Narratives
Based on the game's background and the moral dilemmas we need, I created a script that spans seven days and six nights. Each day, different NPCs will come to the shop seeking potions, and at night, there will be various random encounters prompting the player to make choices. The win/loss condition of the game is simple: it is calculated by the total amount of coins earned at the end, as different events can lead to either a loss or a gain in coins.
In order to set the stage for the background, I wrote a backstory and placed it at the beginning of the game to help players better understand the game's worldview. Additionally, since the herbs need an introduction and guidance, I also wrote descriptions of the effects and functions of the various herbs.
Backstory
Description of Potions
Description of Herbs
