Underground Wonderland

Overview

Alice in Wonderland inspired walking simulator/adventure game.

Narrative

You play a character who is in a coma after a subway accident. You are stuck in an endless dream where time is frozen, and are trying to find a way to unfreeze time and escape.

Player Objective

1. Awaken all animals frozen in time.

2. Direct them towards the exit to the level.

3. Join them to un-freeze time.

Mechanics

1. Interact with animals to awaken them.

2. Press intercom buzzer to guide the animals to the exit.

Made in Unreal Engine.

Used existing assets including Animal Variety Pack, Urban Underground, and City Subway Train.

Level Flow

1. Exit crashed subway car

2. Awaken Pig

3. Teleport to second area

4. Awaken Deer #1

5. Awaken Deer #2

6. Awaken Crows
(Optional)

7. "Tea Party" begins
(All animals are awake)

8. Direct animals to subway train.
Join them on train.

9. Ending

Preparation

Inspired by studying Korsakovia (The Chinese Room).

- Realistic environment layout that breaks apart and becomes increasingly surreal. Heavy use of environmental storytelling.

- Uses cryptic scripted audio events that provide hints to the story.

To ground my own level in realism, I referenced the New York City 42nd Street subway station.

For its surreal/fantastical components, I referenced the Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland.

- World filled with animals where time is frozen at 6:00pm.

Gathered existing assets and assembled a basic layout full of animals to discover and wake up.

1. Realistic area that becomes more surreal as you reach a portal that takes you to Area 2.

2. Multiple sections to explore. Subway car that serves as the level exit.

Iteration Process

Initially the subway stations were empty, and the animals were intended to be amusing surprises to discover inside the subway cars.

However in playtesting, the animals ended up blocking the player too often and caused frustration instead of amusement.

The level flowed better by distributing the animals in smaller numbers throughout the level.

An intercom buzzer was added that when activated, would loudly buzz and wake up the nearby animals.

However, players did not find it intuitive to hit the buzzers.

Buzzers were removed, and animals were then placed in unusual floating positions in order to attract the player's interest in get closer.

When the player got closer, the animal would awaken, which ended up being simpler and more intuitive.

The simplified interactions led to players having an easy time waking up the animals and gathering them for the final "Tea party".

The buzzer was reintroduced for the ending, as the method to guide the animals onto the final subway car (level exit).

The buzzer was enlarged and placed in a position players had an easier time finding.

Full Playthrough