Signifiers and Detailed Storyline

Abstract

Ustrina is a 3D platformer game where you control a spiritual fire character and struggle to survive by either eliminating the enemies or collecting items such as wood, orb or tree trunk. The main objective in the game is to reach Volcano, who was supposed to be dead for centuries, but now she calls the player to herself. Her intention is unknown but that’s what player will figure out through the journey. 

Storyline

Level I (Meeting Ustrina)

The game begins in medias res, it opens with dramatic action and the player finds himself in the endpoint of the game. Player starts a fight with a Boss enemy and learns two basic mechanics of the game:

- Controls for movement

- Throwing fire

In this section no matter how much damage player gets, he remains in the third state. There are no UI elements neither. This is for preventing any interruption of flow (immersion) and offer a rewarding experience to players. After defeating the enemy, player has a brief conversation with Ustrina and at some specific point in the level (when he is closer to the hole), the level ends and shifts back to initial beginning point, which is Cave.

Level 2 (Cave: Tutorial Level)

The level starts with a short cutscene. We see a tribe member who wears a particular mask and he is worshipping around the campfire. There is a background story for this tribe member. He is a part of a peaceful tribe where doing anything with fire is actually forbidden. Yet this person is a traitor and worships to Ustrina secretly and the cave is his hidden place.

Then he succeeds to create the spiritual fire and he runs away afterwards. The cutscene ends at this point and fades out to player perspective. 

Here, the player starts in the zero level of health bar (IDEA: maybe the health bar starts to appear when player collects the first wood?). This level of health is only visible in this point of the game, to depict that he is new-born and he is weak. However, when he grabs his first wood he passes to first state (LOW). Through out this level, player learns how LOW and MEDIUM state works. Player also learns the signifiers for checkpoints and target objective (Balloon).

(TODO: Cave painting, location of wood piles, UI, subtitles and decoration of the level. UI Health bar is depicted with 8 steps)

Level 3 (Spring Theme)

Signifiers:

- Fountain: Fountain throws player into air and causes some damage to player

- Water Mills: Player needs to jump over the buckets in the right time while trying to avoid touching water. 

- Turtles: Unlike stones, they sink into water when you stay over them so you need to immediately jump right after.
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- Enemy types: Range attack-only

Level 4 (Rocky Theme)

In this level, player has the option to follow two different paths. They can either choose to jump over floating islands, or they can prefer to stick on ground. No matter which path they choose, they always need to avoid touching water, including waterfalls coming from floating islands. 

Signifiers:

- Floating island as moving platforms

- Waterfall

- Bridges (with timer): Some islands are connected to each other with wooden bridges and they start to burn when you stay too much on them. So player needs to pass across quickly before the bridge collapses. 

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- Enemy types: Melee attack-only

Level 5 (Winter Theme)

Signifiers:

- Wind: Technically, this is the most challenging obstacle in the game. This one is also triggered when player is in certain location and in order to avoid wind, player needs to hide inside some small cave-ish places. Wind can extinguish you or throw you off from the edge of a cliff.

- Falling cliff (signified with cracks): The ground on the mountain is not steady so player needs to pay attention constantly to the ground. In some parts of the level, there are falling cliffs initiated by specific triggers.

- Gaps: Some small gaps that player can jump over easily. 

- Walk around huge cracks: Sometimes the gaps on path are so huge that it is impossible for the player to jump over. So, that’s when small caves come in. Players can use these caves to walk around huge cracks and continue their path.

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- Enemy types: Range attack-only

Level 6 (Ending)

To be announced…