Glyphweaver - Dev Diary

Forming the Team

When I first came across the month-long 2024 GitHub Game Off Jam, I searched the community tab for any groups working in Unreal Engine 5 and reached out to all teams looking for designers or programmers. Luckily one of those folks, "pterafier", ended up sending my itch profile to his team lead and extended an invite to act as a Level Designer and Programmer! I noticed immediately that this was an international team from many walks of life, so to break the ice I asked what everyone's favorite games are and what they're currently playing. This helped me determine what kinds of games the team was knowledgable in to keep in mind when planning what style game we wanted to make. The theme "SECRETS" was announced with a Wildcard restriction of "Cheat Codes", which lead itself to many different ideas, so I tasked the group with trying to expand on them by writing up docs and selecting the one that most of the team clicked with.

Planning The Game

I wanted to test out one of Tim Cain's methods for creating games, starting by picking a Setting, building a Story around that setting, then developing Mechanics based on the story. I put together a few brainstorming boards based on a few settings I could craft a simple but compelling narrative around, including one based on exploring the ruins of a temple to learn about the fate of a group of mages who were researching new forms of channeling magic. To fit the Jam theme of "Secrets", we would hide "Cheat Codes" of the spells in environmental clues, which they could then learn through a console in the game. Other team members felt the idea resonated with them and helped expand on the initial notes I added.

Initial brainstorm board for what became Glyphweaver.

I put together a first draft of the Game Design Document to act as source of high level direction for our game, and a Level Design Document to have specific details for level design decisions, art direction, and puzzles. Putting these docs together early helped our remote team have a goal to look towards when making design decisions and I'd like to think that it was paramount to our success.

Once we had direction, the team was able to mostly work independently. I co-lead one meeting a week to review progress, roadblocks, and any changes and acted as the 'creative' lead. From this point forward, I was focused on designing the levels for this project and providing high-level design direction.

Level Design

For a majority of the levels, my primary objective was to design around our combat system to make sure the player could flow through the level, dodging projectiles and casting spells. I wanted open arenas with layered verticality so our ranged enemies and player would have vantage points from many areas on the map and clear sight lines. Each level also was designed with environmental storytelling in mind to help make this feel like a temple that was actually lived in and so the player could absorb the lore at their own pace with no cutscenes.

The Rotunda

• Act as a central hub where the player can take a brief reprieve.

  • Inspired by Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls.

• Provide narrative through art on the walls, including a tutorial for unlocking spells.

• Show the player their end goal and pose the question "what's beyond the big locked door?"

The main elements of the Rotunda

Digital Map of Rotunda

The Lab

• Combat: Provide beginner combat challenges.

  • Lecture Room Arena: Simple arena with few enemies. Focused on flow of movement so the player can get a good feel for how the combat works.

  • R&D Lab Arena: A bigger arena with lots of areas for the player to lure enemies into positions they can pick them off. Introduce mini-boss level enemies.

• Lore: Create a sense that this temple was built around mysterious mana producing crystals. Start to add some environmental details that show the deeper you go the more of these we can expect to see.

• Rewards: Glyphs for the Gravity Pull and Healing Wave spells. A portal off the beaten path also helps you find glyphs to unlock the Ice Spike spell. The first of the potions is found here.

Lab Digital Map

Lecture Room Walkthrough

R&D Lab Walkthrough

The Observatory

• Combat: Provide intermediate combat challenges.

  • Library Arena: a vertical and open arena that's ideal for using the environment as much as possible to bob and weave past the hoards of enemies.

  • Observatory Arena: a slightly cramped space that requires proper threat assessment and movement to pick off the faster melee targets while whittling down the slower strong enemies.

• Lore: The environment here hammers in that this was a place of research, including a giant telescope that was used to receive messages from their god. I thought it'd be a nice touch to include a quick outdoor platforming section to break up the monotony of being indoors, but also keen eyed players will notice a structure pointing out from below the depths.

• Rewards: Glyphs for the Fire Shotgun and Meteor spells. Second potion is found at the top.

Observatory Digital Map

Library Walkthrough

Observatory Walkthrough

The Cathedral

• Combat: Provide advanced combat challenges, combining movement and player skill.

  • Caves Arena: A lot of vertical layers and tight, but navigable, corridors. Most likely the toughest challenge up to this point that tests player's ability to find their way around a tiered map.

  • Cathedral Arena: Large symmetrical map, with lots of cover to help kite enemies through while staying safe. Lots of enemies and a final boss in the form of a Cave Troll. The player needs to have good movement and spell efficiency to get through this easily.

• Lore: The Caves start to show that all of these strange rocks are appearing more frequently the further down you go. You can also see a more ruined section of the temple which raises a few questions, "is this an older section of the temple?", "has whatever is beyond begun to consume the temple?", "why are all of the rocks facing the same direction?". Once the Cathedral is opened up you can finally see the spot one of the artworks depicted in the Rotunda, the altar from the prophecy in front of a huge obelisk. I wanted this to feel like an ancient cathedral that was here before the temple was. Maybe even something that had naturally grown from the depths.

• Rewards: One of the three end game states! Congrats!

Cathedral Digital Map

Caves Walkthrough

Cathedral Walkthrough

Closing (results)

As with most Jam Projects made in Unreal, it's difficult to get people to download the game to try out. My strategy to get more folks to vote was to rate and comment on as many games as possible, which kept us at the "Top Karma" position for a handful of days and so far we're in the top 20 with 4 reviews. We got a handful of really positive feedback from the people who did play it, and that's what mattered to me going into this. I'd like to share some below that made my day!

If you've gotten this far and are interested, give the game a play, I didn't include all of the secrets of the temple in this post, so let me know if you found them!

Thanks for reading!