What's in a Game? - The Search for Banned Books - Point and Click Mystery Game Sprint 1

The Library - Front Desk

The Library - Front Desk

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Library - Front Desk Rev 1

The Missing Book

The Missing Book

Desk Drawer Key

Desk Drawer Key

Clock Winding Key

Clock Winding Key

Red Yarn

Red Yarn

Open Clock. In order to have the book hidden inside, the clock wouldn't be able to run normally. Thus, I added the little battery-operated mechanism that would power the clock face.

Open Clock. In order to have the book hidden inside, the clock wouldn't be able to run normally. Thus, I added the little battery-operated mechanism that would power the clock face.

The Hidden Compartment holds the missing book. Thus ending the mystery.

The Hidden Compartment holds the missing book. Thus ending the mystery.

Desk Drawers.

Desk Drawers.

They Open.

They Open.

Originally, each drawer contained different clues.

Originally, each drawer contained different clues.

New Angle for a streamlined search.

New Angle for a streamlined search.

The key gets inserted.

The key gets inserted.

Voila, unlocked. As I said, streamlined. We placed all the clues and items found in the desk into one drawer.

Voila, unlocked. As I said, streamlined. We placed all the clues and items found in the desk into one drawer.

Key removed.

Key removed.

Empty Drawer.

Empty Drawer.

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Front Desk

The Library - Rev 2 - Hallway to Non-Fiction Wing

The Library - Rev 2 - Hallway to Non-Fiction Wing

The Library - Rev 2 - Hallway to Fiction Wing

The Library - Rev 2 - Hallway to Fiction Wing

The Library - Rev 2 - Turn Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Turn Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Right Stairs

The Library - Rev 2 - Right Stairs

The Library - Rev 2 - Right Stairs, Looking Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Right Stairs, Looking Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Upstairs Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Upstairs Right

The Library - Rev 2 - Left Stairs

The Library - Rev 2 - Left Stairs

The Library - Rev 2 - Left Stairs, Looking Left

The Library - Rev 2 - Left Stairs, Looking Left

The Library - Rev 2 - Upstairs Left

The Library - Rev 2 - Upstairs Left

The Library - Front Desk Rev 2 - Front Entrance

The Library - Front Desk Rev 2 - Front Entrance

The Library - Front Desk Rev 2 - Front Entrance

The Library - Front Desk Rev 2 - Front Entrance

This is an environment and some props from a Point-and-Click mystery game that I worked on with my fellow grad students, Brittany Westlund, Shanel Locke, and Kate Lloyd along with our instructor Ash Rezvani for a Game Production Studio class. For this class, we agreed on a game and each was tasked with specific responsibilities while also learning about project management and different approaches to video-game production. Each of us served as project manager for a sprint, but my main role was "art director". However, seeing that the characters and UI assets didn't quite fit the art direction I used for this environment, I would argue that my role was simply that of environmental artist. The game went unfinished when my involvement ended, though it may have been completed with a different artist at a later date.

One big problem I kept running into with this project was knowing exactly which camera angles to set up and render for good movement through the space and also accounting for where objects needed to be hidden and found in 3D space. I think that working on the art and assets at the same time as the story and gameplay loop were being refined really was a hinderance. Needing to make props that then became obsolete as well as designing a setting that was still changing for the story points meant that many things were scrapped, reworked, or entirely remade.

I really love the environment that I made for this game, and hope to make use of it myself for some other project someday.

Several models were sourced from the BlenderKit addon for Blender. Some exist as-is and others were significantly edited.