Engine: Creation Kit
Platform: PC
Team Size: Individual
Reuse of Space
Iteration
Starfield: Ascension
First Enounter
In the Brain Storage room the player enters and must deal with combat robots firing from an elevated position. After eliminating the robots the player speaks with Dr. Reeves who directs the player to the next objective.
Quest Summary
Ascension begins in the New Atlantis Spaceport with woman named Emma. She informs the player that her town Salvation Springs is in trouble and asks them to investigate. The quest culminates in the player having to choose whether to allow the process of Ascension to continue or not.
Design Goals
Reuse of Space
Implementing varied gameplay into a single space within the quest.
Meaningful Choice
The quest culminates in the player having to decide between two choices. First option is to end the process of Ascension but kill all of the robots and sick in the town. Second option is to allow the process to continue but kill all of the humans in the town.
Conveyance
Landmarks
Meaningful Choice
Providing a choice at the end of the quest that affects the characters and environment in the game.
By implementing landmarks in the space the player is able to orient themselves within the space.
Conveyance
Using Landmarks and Framing to guide the player to the next location.
Framing
Within my design I attempted to frame the players view so that they had a clear view of their goal.
Initial Concept
Adapting To The Timeframe
Post Mortem
What Went Wrong
Tech issues severely slowed down progress on the project.
Incredibly overscoped at the beginning of the project.
Underestimated time dialogue would take to implement.
Second Encounter
When the player returns to the space they are on the top floor looking down upon unsuspecting robots. This allows the player to engage in interesting and unique ways.
It became apparent almost immediately that I needed to cut about two thirds of my design in order to accommodate for the time I had for this project. I chose to cut every interior space in the village except for the church. Then I redesigned the church to include the story beats that were originally in the village.
What Went Well
Was able to quickly nail down a layout for the spaces.
Was able to efficiently iterate on my initial concept to account for the project time frame.
What I Learned
Ensure that the quest is always working and able to be play tested.
The importance of pinch points in open world games.