Not Trained For This

June 2024

Not Trained For This is a narrative and puzzle game developed in Unreal Engine 5, where players assume the role of an inspector solving a murder case.

Game Specs

First Person

Narrative / puzzle Game

Solo

Production

Lead Technical Designer

10 People

3 weeks

Unreal EngineNarrative / puzzle GameBlueprintsGitTechnical Design

Project Overview

Not Trained For This is our end of second year project, where the player incarnate an inspector after a murder inside a luxury cruise train. The player relive the day of each suspects from their literal point of view to find clues and resolve the case.

Technical Overview

Disclaimer: Due to a game design rework, almost the entirety of the programming started one and half week before the due date. Small Post Mortem at the end of the page.

Dialogue System

The objective while making the dialogue system was to be sure that the narrative designer could easily add dialogue lines or even whole new dialogues. Data Tables were used to store all dialogue information, allowing for easy modification and expansion. Each Data Table correspond to a dialogue sequence.

Data Tables, each one corresponding to a dialogue sequence

Each dialogue line have a character associated and can be paired with an audio file. Designer can choose between a simple dialogue (JumpTo to go to next line) or a multiple choice dialogue (branch) where the player can choose between specified lines.

Data for a dialogue line

The UI is flexible enough to get 3 lines of text, 3 possible answer and auto adjust the speaker name zone.

UI for dialogues

Drawer Puzzle

The first puzzle of the demo. The player need to find what cutlery is needed for the second puzzle (the watch) and then decipher in what drawer this cutlery is stored with the help of a board indicating cross-referencing Category/Use/Type/Material to find the right code for the right drawer.

The cadrant is separated in 8 zone from 0 to 7. Each space between two number correspond to the lower number. To validate a number the player need to release the button to turn the wheel, if the code is correct the corresponding drawer open.

Turning the drawer lock

Watch Puzzle

The Watch Puzzle is separated in two part : opening the watch and fixing the watch. The first part is set in two part : opening the lid and opening the back.

For the first part, the player need to align 3 concentric circles to reveal the pattern and open the front of the watch. The next step for the player is find a tool in the drawer puzzle to open the back of the watch.

First part of the watch puzzle

After opening the back of the watch the player must liberate a ball from the mechanism by rotating gears and balance the watch to move the ball. I used a big proxy of the watch to get "accurate" physics.

Second part of the watch puzzle

Post Mortem

I wasn't satisfied with what I've done on this project, so I found 3 key points on which I will work on to be better next time a situation like this happen : Better communication with and between key members. Taking more initiatives when uncertainty block the project. Anticipate needs when there is no clear lead on what to do.