Océane Famechon
Narrative Game Designer
Conditions of the project: level design project on Plague Tale: Innocence.
The project was supervised by Laura Mas Maury
During this project I was asked to develop a block out level following a guideline document from the narration team. I had to make a User Story document to show the way the story will unroll inside the level and what event should happen during certains environnement.
For this level, I wanted the player to feel the disconnection between Amicia and Lucas at the start of the level. As the two of them have different opinions on religion and blasphemy, I choose to let the player experience the conflict in Amicia's mind and make her act a little bit reckless as she does on some other levels when she is angry. For the Abbaye part, a more furtive gameplay lets the player experience the pressure of not getting caught set in. The puzzles are made to be simple and procure calm before the storm.
For the layout of the Abbaye, I took inspiration from the Abbey in the south of France. Because in Innocence we collect flowers and in the first few scenes we encounter a medicinal/botanical garden I tried to merge the two concepts together. This resulted in a monastery of floral brewers like the ones with big lavender crops.
I wanted to keep the DNA of the game while still being in a small secluded area. I chose to surround the area with forest to make the player see that this Abbaye is a trap, slowly forcing him to face the danger directly.
