Nadia

Players step into the shoes of Nadia, the young daughter of an aristocratic family in 1910s Russia. Set at the onset of the Russian Civil War, the story begins when Nadia’s family home is invaded by Red Army soldiers, who have come to arrest the household on suspicion of treason. With her parents dead and soldiers patrolling every inch of the grounds, Nadia must navigate the massive estate, coming to terms with the newfound supernatural abilities brought on by the attack as she tries to escape and unlock the secrets of her family’s legacy.

As a young girl, players, in the role of Nadia, are relatively helpless in the face of armed soldiers; Instead of confronting them head-on, they must use hidden passageways, careful stealth, and Nadia’s burgeoning telekinetic abilities to evade capture for long enough to escape the house, solving mysterious puzzles along the way.

I worked on this project over 6 months as part of my senior project at the Savannah College of Art and Design, alongside a team of 9 other developers and with the help of several other contributors. My official roles on the team were Design Lead, heading the design of player abilities, puzzles, and other gameplay elements, and Level Designer, creating the layouts and player paths for each level. I was also one of the key programmers on the project, and did work on the game’s UI, sound design, and technical art.

The game was created entirely in Unreal Engine 4, with asset creation taking place in a wide variety of software including Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Designer, Adobe Photoshop, and others. The game’s code was written using Unreal’s blueprint system because that was what the majority of our programmers were most familiar with, although I am also well-versed with scripting in C#.

 

Key Code and Design Documents

Creates a UI indicator representing the player's next objective, and maps its 3d position relative to the player onto the 2d viewport. The indicator's position updates as the player moves, so that they always have an idea of where to go next.

Creates a UI indicator representing the player's next objective, and maps its 3d position relative to the player onto the 2d viewport. The indicator's position updates as the player moves, so that they always have an idea of where to go next.

Drives Nadia's rogue powers. At the beginning of the game, she has very little control over her abilities, and they spontaneously activate. This code triggers her abilities upon entering a collider, and animates the player's camera towards the object

Drives Nadia's rogue powers. At the beginning of the game, she has very little control over her abilities, and they spontaneously activate. This code triggers her abilities upon entering a collider, and animates the player's camera towards the object her powers are affecting before playing the animation for that object.

Drives the game's most complex puzzle, a set of scales which must be balanced using all the abilities Nadia has access to. This portion of the code sets the appropriate positions for the scales' animations, checks to see if any objects intersecting w

Drives the game's most complex puzzle, a set of scales which must be balanced using all the abilities Nadia has access to. This portion of the code sets the appropriate positions for the scales' animations, checks to see if any objects intersecting with the scales are heavy enough to weigh them down, and triggers the animation if they are.

Further code for the scales puzzle. This section animates the platforms up and down as objects are added and removed. It also checks if the puzzle has been completed, and if it has, locks the scales in place and triggers the animation for the complet

Further code for the scales puzzle. This section animates the platforms up and down as objects are added and removed. It also checks if the puzzle has been completed, and if it has, locks the scales in place and triggers the animation for the completed puzzle.

This code drives the game's tutorial system. Upon the player intersecting with a tutorial collision box, it checks if tutorials are enabled in the game's settings, and if they are, generates the appropriate UI elements and fills them with the appropr

This code drives the game's tutorial system. Upon the player intersecting with a tutorial collision box, it checks if tutorials are enabled in the game's settings, and if they are, generates the appropriate UI elements and fills them with the appropriate text depending on the collision box that was hit.

Creates a UI indicator while an off-screen guard has line-of-sight to the player, so that the player knows when they're in danger of being seen. Also, maps the 3dposition of that guard relative to the player onto the 2d viewport and animates the indi

Creates a UI indicator while an off-screen guard has line-of-sight to the player, so that the player knows when they're in danger of being seen. Also, maps the 3dposition of that guard relative to the player onto the 2d viewport and animates the indicator to point towards the guard.

The final map for the game's play-area, color-coded for each level and labelled with traps and guards. The full game design document can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2C07f2fumh3-AFBbtKwnHI-p0Uca9PsyNq8OkHk9lQ/edit?usp=sharing

The final map for the game's play-area, color-coded for each level and labelled with traps and guards. The full game design document can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g2C07f2fumh3-AFBbtKwnHI-p0Uca9PsyNq8OkHk9lQ/edit?usp=sharing

Gameplay and Environment Screenshots

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