Gestalta (v.) — Swedish. To shape, to express, to perform, to interpret
Theme Music
Gestalta is a short 3D side scrolling narrative platformer which I worked on as a group project with friends. We wanted to craft a story that is told from the perspective of a toy — similar to the Toy Story franchise. But instead of a stuffed toy, the main character is a humanoid wooden mannequin that is commonly used to practice drawing human poses.
Sketches of the game's three chapters. Illustration by 李辰康 Lee Chen-Kang
Chapters
Väcka, meaning awake, was when the mannequin was given to a baby as a toy. This level is set in the crib with oversized toys and pillows. It started with black and white visuals, and colors gradually became flourish, foreshadowing the beginning of a new adventure.
Resa, meaning journey, was when the baby had become a teenager, and they became interested in drawing. Various painting can be seen on the desk, but at the end of the chapter, the mannequin was thrown into a trash can.
Förgå, meaning vanish, was when the teenager had become an office worker as they grew up. From the perspective of the mannequin, everything now looks cold and monotone, and drawing as a habit is now long gone anymore.
The names here, including the game title, are Swedish. The decision of this is rather simple though: IKEA, a Swedish company that sells furniture, has an item that is called Gestalta — and it is a wooden figure.
Left — custom inspector for camera movements; Right — level in editor mode. Note that each green box is a trigger area for new camera shot.
Customisable Camera System
Since this is a side scrolling game, the camera should be on the same side of the level, which the player has limited control over the camera. The camera can be moved to slightly look away from the character, but it will “springs back” to its original position once the player release the camera control.
I intended to create a smooth continuous shot for each level, but at the same time the relative position between the character and the camera should not be fixed, i.e. should be contextual, so different shots should also be made depending on the story context.
Unity’s Cinemachine is a good camera system tool to do this, as virtual cameras can be made to represent different shots, and shots can be blend or cut. Shots can be also set to procedurally tracking target objects, and it works great with tools like Timeline and Post-Processing Stack. But I decided to create my own camera system from scratch with mainly two reasons: to practice coding skills and to get full control of the features I want to add.
Gameplay Video (Work In Progress)
Chapter 1 - Väcka
Chapter 2 - Resa
Chapter 3 - Förgå
Credits
Game Designers
胡琦 Hu Chi、李辰康 Lee Chen-Kang、黃睿緯、温紹成、楊雯婷
Music Composer
胡琦 Hu Chi
