I created a game focused around the concept of a cat having to solve a murder mystery. Unfortunately, due to scope, all that is available is the explorable environment that the game takes place in. You play as a cat named Frost. He is young and recently independent from his family. Unfortunately for him, he is the first to discover the body of Fire Lily, a cat who was the daughter of The Brightest Star, an influential figure in cat society. Frost, who has now been accused of murder by his own brother, White Fox, decides to investigate the case in order to clear his name.

  The game takes place in a small forest community of cats. It functions similarly to a small village setting. Some cats live in family or friend groups and others alone. The physical space is a large forest semi-clearing with hollowed out spaces in a cliffside to function as “houses”. The game begins, however, in front of a Japanese-style forest shrine. It is a small wood and stone shrine featuring a lucky cat statue. The cat locals refuse to go near this place, believing it to be cursed. Frost, as an “I’m not normal” type of cat, frequents this location to get away from his overprotective family. 

In the ideal scope of this game, the player would be able to explore the world in order to speak to other cats and discover clues. Information would be stored in a mental journal that the player can check back on. Similarly to Twilight Princess, the player will have access to a “sense” mode that allows them to use Frost’s superior sense of smell to uncover clues. This will highlight objects and scent trails. Players can sniff objects to discover who has interacted with them. Objects may include: tufts of fur, loose claws and whiskers, environmental effects such as trampled grass or dead animals. The sense mode may even reveal secret trails or locations that cannot be easily seen by eye.

Ideally, the game would be very story and character driven, with character interactions taking up the majority of the game, similar to a visual novel. There would also be a minimal amount of action sequences during tense areas of the game.

I set out to create a washed out, dark, gloomy atmosphere to sell the murder mystery feel. I think that I accomplished this well with the heavily forested area and minimal points of light. The creepiness of the glowing lucky cat being the only true light source helps bring your eye to this important object. I also have to give a lot of credit to Jaden Smith-Borne, who improved this atmosphere immensely with his incredible music track.

I believe I also accomplished creating a recognisable and unique character model with decent animations for the player to play as, although, due to some unforeseen and unfixable circumstances, the player character cannot be textured (a textured model is included in the scene as a placeholder.)

Asset credits go to:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/terrain-sample-asset-pack-145808

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/starter-assets-third-person-character-controller-196526

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/nature/grass-flowers-pack-free-138810

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/trees/korea-native-trees-7714

Download the game:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XXbyQwNEcAmjtOFY6pkp7kKOQxaIhlN3/view?usp=sharing

Watch a video playthrough:

Some of my favourite visuals:

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A collection of assets made for this game:

Reflection:

I learned mostly about how to create Unity environments in this class. I had already taken classes on character modeling and animation, and even knew the basics of game creation, albeit using Unreal. However, I have never spent the time to learn how to model environmental objects or set up a complex environment. I felt that I spent the majority of this class on this aspect of the game and it really paid off. I am extremely happy with the environment, although I would be happier if I had made the trees myself, but I did not have the time to do so. However, I think what I learned mostly is that rushing a product will only make it worse. We had to rush through every step of this project, due to the 7 week deadline, and it forced me to compromise on many of the final pieces. I would love to see what I could do with this given more time.