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The Prison's Architect

ROLE

Game Designer

Game Developer

3D Environment Artist: Prison Cell, Prison Kitchen and Tile Texturing.

Level Designer: Hallway

DESCRIPTION

The Prison's Architect is an epic survival game full of suspense. Enter the unforgiving Reynosa state prison and help Thomas Martinez escape it. Solve puzzles, run faster and think smarter in order to beat the cops and escape this brutal prison. Now tell me do you have what it takes to do all that and help Thomas escape Reynosa state prison? We’ll find out.

YEAR

2023

GENRE

Action Adventure / Survival

PLATFORM

PC

CREDITS

Game Developer: Yazan Al-Tahan, Saif Abdo.

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Game Designer: Yazan Al-Tahan, Saif Gharaibeh.

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3D Environment Artist: Yazan Al-Tahan, Saif Abdo, Saif Gharaibeh.

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3D Character Artist: Saif Abdo, Saif Gharaibeh.

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UX/UI: Saif Gharaibeh.

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Music: Saif Gharaibeh.

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Direction: Yazan Al-Tahan, Saif Gharaibeh.

Acknowledgment

I'd like to share with you the project that I did with my dear partners Saif Abdo and Saif Gharaibeh, which was a game called (The Prison's Architect) that we developed and designed with Unity this academic year for Graduation Project.
It was a difficult challenge and a challenging experience, but we learned a lot from it and improved our skills in game design and development, as well as how to deal with these topics, and as a result, we created this game in which we wanted to send a classic character, similar to those seen in PlayStation 1 games.
I'd like to thank my partners Saif Gharaibeh and Saif Abdo for their hard work and everyone who helped and supported us along the way, including friends and family, and a special thanks to our project supervisor, Muhanna Muhanna, and the rest of the doctors who worked tirelessly to teach us over the years.


I would like to point out that this amazing trailer for our game was done by none other than my partner Saif Gharaibeh.

Full Walkthrough

Game Overview

1.1       Main Features

  • Puzzle Solving in item collecting to craft the cell key and figuring out the password

  • Sneaking

  • Stabbing

  • Shooting

  • AI demonstrated in: Cops detecting, Cops Chasing and shooting

Traps like cameras, lasers and landmines

1.2    Target audience

Our target audience are gamers that prefer classic games like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil old games, we want them to be able to enjoy our game. We addressed gamers with a fun, challenging and a very intense game that will give classic gamers a good time while playing it.

Story

2.1       Game Story

Our game has only a backstory which is demonstrated in the beginning of the game and it is:

Thomas Martinez, whose father was a previous cartel (a Mexican drug dealing gang) member that was killed by the gang, his dad wanted Thomas to be a better person than he was, and made him seek a professional career and made him study architecture to become an architect.

Unfortunately, Vengeance consumed Thomas, so he sought revenge and killed the man responsible for his father’s murder, which led him to be arrested and put in prison but decided he had enough after 4 years.

From this backstory we came up with the title of our game which is The Prison’s Architect.

2.2   Cut scenes

There are three cutscenes in our game:

  1. Text appearing on the screen explaining the backstory of our character Thomas Martinez which is mentioned above.

  2. In the transition from the Prison Cell to the Prison Block we created a cutscene of the cell door opening after collecting the items to craft the cell key, in addition to demonstrating that there is a guard and a camera that you should sneak around.

  3.  The ending cutscene of Thomas escaping from the prison.

CHARACTERS

Enviroments

3.1       Thomas Prison's Cell

Priosn Cell_4.png
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3.2       Thomas Prison's Block

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3.3       Prison's Kitchen

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3.4       Prison's Main Hall

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Main Hall_3.png

3.5       Prison's Hallway

Hallway Level Design 3.PNG
Hallway Level Design 4.PNG
Hallway Level Design 5.PNG
Hallway Level Design 2.PNG
Hallway Level Design.PNG

3.6       Outside Prison

Outside Prison_1.png
Outside Prison_2.png
Outside Prison_3.png

Technology

4.1       Camera

We used a top-down camera movement system using Cinemachine extension from the Unity Assets in most levels that follows the player around except in the cell, kitchen and office using a stable camera in a certain position as they are small environments and to show the classic camera feel. It is worth noticing that the camera angle in the Prison Block and Main Hall is at 60-degrees but in the hallway and outside it is at 90-degrees to provide the player with steady and precise aim wherever he points the mouse at.

4.2    Controls

The main controls for our game are W A S D or the arrow keys to move the player, F to zoom, E to pick up and the left mouse key to stab/shoot. When you get the gun, you use the mouse to rotate/aim and the W A S D or arrow keys to strafe and dash away from the cops shooting at you.

Game Mechanics

5.1       Space

  • Discrete or Continuous?

The Game is continuous because the camera is moving with the character.​

      In the scenes where the camera is stable the space is discrete.

Our Scenes are connected with each other that can be activated by a trigger.

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  • How many Dimensions?

      Only the 3D dimension for the character and environment.

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  • Boundaries?

Our Game has connected areas to go to it to escape from the prison, but there are areas you can’t access without killing the cops, and you must escape from the cops or kill them in the last level.

5.2      Actions and Skills

  • Attacking Enemies:

The general way to attack Cops is by sneaking on them in the block and main hall then stabbing them. Also, when you obtain the hand gun you will be able to shoot projectile bullets from distance in the last 2 levels which are the hallway and outside.   

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  • Escape:

You have to fight the cops or just find your way out of the prison in the last level by reaching the last area and cutting through the fence to get to the safety zone.

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  • Other Enemies

Other enemies such as the sniper will hunt you down with their laser and two shot you (detecting 50% from Thomas’ health) in the final area, he will be located on the watch towers in the outside area.

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  • Obstacles:

  1. The Enemies

  2. Traps: such as deadly lasers and landmines which are located in the grass field outside the prison, if the player steps on them they will instantly kill you.

  3. Health: The player will have a health bar that will kill the player if it reaches 0%, you can get damaged from the cops and their guns, Landmines, Propane tanks explosions, Snipers.

Rules and Gameplay

6.1       Health

In the first few levels there is no health system for Thomas, the rules are simple if you get spotted you are BUSTED and the level restarts and there are a few scenarios for that:

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  • If the guard sees you

  • If the camera spots you

  • If you can go behind the cop to stab him and don’t press the stab button which is the left click in the given time 

  • If you go behind the cop in fist mode you will instantly get caught

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However, in the last 2 levels which is the Hallway and Outside a health system is integrated into the game and the rules are:

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  • Get shot by Cop in Hallway: -10%

  • Get shot by Cop in Outside: -20%

  • Get shot by a Sniper: -50%

  • Propane Tank Explosion: -70%

  • Landmine and Lasers: Instant Death

  • Med kits: Regenerates full health to the player

6.2       Rewards

  • When you get caught in a level it will restart (checkpoint system).

  • The Propane Tanks can be used to kill the cops and explode the boxes behind them which may have a Med kit in them so if you shoot them from far away enough, they don’t damage you applying the high-risk/high reward method in our gameplay.

  • Med kits are used to regenerate the player’s health instantly.

6.3       Punishments

  • Moving to the camera’s light or going in front of the guards will make you get busted instantly.

  • Not stabbing the guards in time will get you caught

  • Our style of gameplay is run and gun so you have to keep moving to avoid getting sprayed by the cops which will cause a very low health or death to the player

  • Stepping on Landmines and Laser will cause instant death

  • Exploding the propane tanks at a near distance will cause -70% of your health  

UX/UI Design

7.1       Main Menu

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7.2       HUD

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7.2       Pause Menu

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Programs Used

  • Maya for 3D Modeling.

  • Substance Painter for 3D Texturing.

  • Texture.com and Adobe Photoshop for Tile Texturing.

  • Unity for Game Development.

  • Visual Studio for Coding.

  • AccuRig for Rigging.

  • Mixamo for the Animations.

  • Photoshop for producing UI.

  • Unity Asset Store, Sketchfab for bringing some assets such as the pickup truck, police cars, med kit, Outline, VFX and some other assets.

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