GAME MECHANICS
This section explains the full process of coming up with and finalising the mechanics for End of the Line, and explains how they work, what they do, and why we approached them the way we did.
Background and Process
The ideation process for what mechanics we wanted to add was done very early, within the first couple of weeks of starting the project. With our concept decided on, we used that as a starting point for what mechanics we needed, also referencing some existing time loop games, such as 12 Minutes or Kindergarten, drafting up a list of what we wanted to include
From there, us designers made diagrams and flow charts to cement how each of the mechanics would function from start to finish, and added visual aids to assist the rest of the team in understanding said mechanics, and to communicate to them how the mechanics would function.
We’d then have a meeting to see if the mechanic needed tweaking, or if it wasn’t feasible to include, as we had a limited time frame to work with. Once all the mechanics were finalised, it was then handed over to the programmers for implementation.
Of all the mechanics we wanted to include, only one was removed due to it requiring a lot more resources than we had: which was the ability to eavesdrop on conversations to gain information.
TIME LOOP
Every 2 and a half minutes, sirens blare as reactor overheats and the train explodes. The scene cuts to black, and the player sees a digital clock rewinding. The player soon finds themself back at where they started the game. Every NPC and item resets to the beginning. The only thing that remains is any knowledge or clues the player had gathered before.
The angle of a time loop was a subject of interest among the team prior to starting the project and was one we wanted to try ourselves. We took a look at different ways of doing the time loop, but ultimately went this way as it was the easiest way to execute it while still being effective in its gameplay purpose and clarity to the player. It serves as the primary point of strategy for the players and as a major obstacle to play against, as players have to always consider how much time they have in a loop left to finish an objective, or to find an answer to an unanswered question. They have to be aware of how they can complete what they need to do within the time limit. It adds a whole other dimension to the gameplay and keeps things more interesting for them.
Due to it being such a major part of gameplay, many other aspects of the game had to be tuned around the time limit, such as level design, quest length and dialogue length. The length of a single loop also had to be adjusted numerous times, to make sure players neither had too little time to complete their objectives, or had enough time to complete too many objectives in a single loop. Ideally, players should be able to complete the full game within 5 full loops, give or take a couple to make the final run, and account for human error.
DIALOGUE
Players can interact with the NPCs in the game and talk to them, to gain information, complete objectives or expand on any background narrative. As information was the main element in gameplay, one of the ways we felt was most obvious for players to try and get this information was through interacting with characters in the world.
This would also help players get more immersed in the game, as they would be directly communicating with the characters in the world, and might get to learn more about them, giving more context to things, and colouring the experience more.
Making dialogue would also allow us designers to write more about the narrative, and have more interactive and direct ways to show it to the players, beyond using items in the world or background, or not giving it at all.
JOURNAL
When the player presses J, a menu shows up, linking the key information they have received thus far together, to help the player piece things together and solve puzzles and complete gameplay sections to progress further. When a key piece of information is obtained, or when the player first enters a new room, a small prompt appears momentarily, telling the player to press J to look at the journal.
As the game used information as the main form of progression, we knew we needed a way for players to continually track that info across loops, in order to not get lost, as there were multiple things to track simultaneously. The most common way us in the team knew games did this was through a journal, primarily because a few of us had used a journal system in one of our past projects, and it fit our intended function perfectly.
The main point of difficulty was determining what we would consider ‘key info’, and at what points to give the journal prompts. We decided that key information is information that would directly allow players to solve puzzles or complete objectives, or information that pushes them towards obtaining the answers they needed. From that, the points the player would receive the prompts would be when they performed an action, or selected a dialogue option that allowed them to obtain this type of information, or when they first entered a room, in the event the player needed the knowledge from the journal as a prerequisite, and it was too awkward to introduce it purely using player actions in a timely manner.
INVENTORY
The inventory allows the player to store items that they have obtained from completing quests from NPCs, or interacting with objects in the world, and use them to complete other objectives. The UI slides out from the top of the screen when the mouse is moved towards it, and players can click the items to select them and use them by interacting with an object or NPC.
We knew we wanted an inventory for the get go, as it allowed us to include items for the player to collect and use to complete quests, whcih encouraged players to interact more directly with the world, and be observant to their surroundings, engaging them further in the game.
GALLERY
The visual aids used to pitch how the mechanics would work to the team, and media showing the some of the final versions of the mechanics
