Alice - Ana Stefan Portfolio

Alice Through the Fey Realm Isometric Narrative Adventure Alice Through the Fey Realm is an enchanting isometric narrative adventure that thrusts you into the shoes of Alice. A compelling adventure unfolds as you awaken in the mysterious Fey Realm and embark on a quest to discover the key to your journey home.

8 Months

7 Weeks

Technical Game Designer

Unreal Engine

Steam

PROJECT OVERVIEW

About Project

This project goes through all 4 stages of developing a game: concepting, pre-production, production, and release. My team and I were given a brief that we had to follow, which included the genre, game features, art style, and other constraints. The team was formed from designers (8) and programmers (3) for the first 2 stages, while artists (8) joined for the rest. I worked on a main feature, the dice rolling, which you can read about more below.

Challenges

Control Over Dice Roll Results
Our main reference game is Disco Elysium, where the players have no control over dice rolls. Alongside the system design team, I decided to prototype a physical dice rolling system with Yahtzee influences that would allow players to have more control over their dice rolls. Through playtesting, we validated that players prefer this version over leaving it all up to chance.

Cutting The Skill System & Adding Equipment Effects
At first, we had a skill system planned, which had to be cut due to scope. The equipment was supposed to give the player a boost for particular skills, like in Disco Elysium. However, after scrapping the skill system, we decided to repurpose the equipment to have an effect on dice rolling directly. I have now implemented 10 different equipment effects.

MY CONTRIBUTIONS

This project page is unfinished due to the game being in progress !

Dice Rolling System

The dice rolling system, influenced by Yahtzee and Disco Elysium, features defined and undefined winning conditions. It uses physical dice and item effects for player control, with items influencing rolls. The system includes a dice manager component attached to the game mode blueprint and a separate dice blueprint for rolling and showcasing. The UI allows players to use equipped items affecting dice rolls. Below you can see a flowchart breaking down this system.

Dice Rolling System Flowchart

Dice Manager Event Graph

Equipment Effects

To give players an advantage against tougher win conditions, we introduced effects to modify dice values. These effects include increasing a dice's value by 1, rerolling, or setting specific numbers. Equipped items from the player's inventory were linked to these effects in the dice blueprint. I created equipment slots to display equipped items, usable once per dice roll mini-game. This feature significantly helps players in meeting difficult conditions like achieving 5 of a kind or a large street (5 in a row), as well as in ensuring victory with a final roll.

Equipment System In-Game

Equipment Example: Turn All Dice Into X

Dice Blueprint

As previously mentioned, the dice blueprint features many functions that control what happens at any point of the mini-game. They start out by getting spawned at a specific location, then they get a small impulse in a random direction so they look more like they are rolling instead of falling. After they finish falling and stop moving, the On Sleep event gets triggered, telling the dice manager to verify if the win condition has been met. Based on this, the players can choose to either lock in specific dice and reroll the remaining ones.

Dice In-Game

Dice Event Graph

Dice Rolling UI

The UI includes essential elements such as win conditions, game state indication, equipment slots, and a reroll button, along with instructional details. It's designed to be fully compatible with controllers and includes dice highlighting and selection through invisible buttons linked to each die.
Equipment slots dynamically display information from the player's inventory, showing the effect that is has once used. Win conditions are presented clearly, adapting to the specific parameters set by the mission design team. For instance, if the condition is a full house with two 5s and three 6s, the text reflects this precisely.
As a next step, we are working on the introduction to this system for new players, focusing on UX.

Dice UI In-Game

Evolution of Dice Roll UI Layout

Dice UI (Widget) Event Graph

ACHIEVEMENTS

Developing this system was a crucial task for the game, representing a significant challenge and opportunity for creativity. By taking the approach of logical implementation for every win condition and effect, I was able to get creative and quickly prototype any new ideas. Collaborating with artists and programmers on both the user interface and the dice rolling system expanded my experience, while playtesting provided valuable insights for improving win conditions and item effects.
I was able to learn how the production of a game goes from start to end, going through all the processes and ending with a Steam release for the first time.