Gather 'Round the Campfire

Overview:

Gather 'Round the Campfire is a Unity-based puzzle-adventure game created as a term project for a college Game Design course. The game takes place in a quiet forest, where the player takes on the role of the weakened bond between five hikers who died during a fatal snowstorm. The goal is to restore the connection between them by recovering their lost treasures so their lingering spirits can find closure and move on.

The gameplay alternates between two phases:

• Forest Phase: while in the forest, collect materials to stoke campfires and deliver them to the hikers to uncover the events leading to their deaths.

• Maze Phase: during the night, enter surreal mazes representing the hikers' minds and complete various objectives to retrieve their lost treasures.

Key Features:

• Control Scheme: Use either 'WASD' of the arrow keys for player movement, and rotate the camera with the mouse. While in the forest, press 'Spacebar' to jump and 'Shift' to toggle sprinting. The 'E' key is used to interact with objects. Use it to collect/deposit forest materials, collect objects to complete maze objectives, and toggle the riddle submission screen (only applicable in The Blue Maze).

• Forest Phase: The first gameplay phase last approximately three minutes, represented through a day-night cycle. Players must explore the forest and gather materials to bring back to campsites to unlock dialogue and add extra time to the second phase. This dialogue gradually reveals their backstories, feelings towards the other hikers, and the circumstances of their deaths.

• Maze Phase: During the second gameplay phase, the player will enter the mazes in a set order. Each maze has a unique objective to achieve before accessing the treasure. Upon completing each objective, the player is automatically transported to the treasure room. Successfully collecting an item removes that hiker from the forest and progresses the player to the next maze after the forest section.

• Guidance Systems: There are several systems to help the player navigate the mazes. In each maze, there are several glowing white orbs serving as waypoints that lead the player towards their objective, as well as black orbs signalling wrong turns. At any point inside a maze, the player can press the 'Esc' key to return to the beginning of the maze. Additionally, each maze has a secret cheat key to assist with completing that maze's objective. The specific key changes between mazes.

Developer's Note:

Gather 'Round the Campfire was my first serious exploration of blending gameplay and narrative elements, with an emphasis on delivering deep storytelling through interactive mechanics. This skill is something I aim to further improving in future projects.

One of my proudest personal achievements with this game was designing the dialogue system for the hikers, used throughout the entire game. All dialogue was stored in Scriptable Objects, and I built a system to manage and control dialogue progression consistently across different types of triggers and interactions.

Throughout development, I also became properly familiar with several important Unity tools. I used the engine's terrain system to sculpt the forest environment, ProBuilder to construct the cabin featured in the final scene, and integrated the hikers' models and animations from Mixamo.