Washed Ashore – Development Log #2

Design Problem #111: Finding Frogman’s Campsite

Sometimes in game design, seemingly simple changes make a huge impact on the player’s overall experience. For example, in Washed Ashore, I ran into an issue where many players were entirely missing out on an entire chunk of the game.

In this post, I share some design documentation that outlines this problem and how I overcame it.

(PDF below provided as an alternate way to view this design documentation)

Problem overview

This design document deals with the process of refining the player’s experience of finding Frogman’s campsite, an NPC from Washed Ashore.

Summary of problem area:  The player can find a specific tile on the overworld to enter a sub-region, Frogman’s campsite. 

Problem: Frogman’s campsite is too hard to find

Problem details and steps to solve

• It’s okay to have secret areas that the player will never find, but in this case, since the project is early in development compared to the desired scope, Frogman’s campsite is one of the few important places with which the player can engage. It feels wrong that it is as hidden as it is.
• During playtesting, this became apparent because many players did not find Frogman’s campsite unless I told them where it was.
• Frogman’s camp is only found by the player if they go to this specific tile on the map (outlined in red):

• To make finding the camp more engaging and less happenstance, I decided to increase the range in which the player becomes aware of Frogman’s camp.
• Story-wise, this is achieved by telling the player that they hear Frogman singing from some distance away.

• I decided to place the edge of the range along a trail. If the player is following the trail, they will be even more likely to come across the sound of Frogman singing.
• By following the direction of Frogman’s song, the player will come across their campsite.

• Below shows the range I decided on. Now, there are six tiles that the player can find that will alert them to Frogman’s presence (for the first time). 

• Additionally, the text will draw the player toward the campsite by telling the player which direction the sound is coming from. I had to make sure that the direction was correct based on which direction the player was approaching from, since depending on where the player is, the sound may be coming from the north, northwest, west, or southwest.
• Here is a sample of some of the narrative scripting for the text that is triggered as you approach the campsite:

• And here is a sample of some code in C# used to change the direction based on which trigger the player enters:

if (tags.Contains("OverwriteDirectionToSound"))
{
    string directionToSound = "ERROR FINDING DIRECTION";

    if (tags.Contains("north"))
    {
        if (tags.Contains("acrossWater"))
        {
            directionToSound = 
                "north of you, across the water";
        }
        else
        {
            directionToSound = 
                "directly north of you";
        }
    }
    else if (tags.Contains("northwest"))
    {
        directionToSound = 
            "northwest of you";
    }
    else if (tags.Contains("west"))
    {
        directionToSound = 
            "directly west of you";
    }
    else if (tags.Contains("southwest"))
    {
        directionToSound = 
            "southwest of you";
    }
    else if (tags.Contains("south"))
    {
        directionToSound = 
            "directly south of you";
    }

    inkManager.story.variablesState
        ["frogman_hear_tune_phraseDirectionToSound"] =
            directionToSound;
    inkManager.story.variablesState
        ["frogman_hear_tune_phraseDirectionToSoundUpper"] =
            ExtensionsString.UpperFirst(directionToSound);
}

Tasks completed to solve this design problem

• Make sure that terrain flavor text doesn’t override story text
• Write text and responses for hearing Frogman’s song
• Rewrite text for the actual tile of the campsite and entering the campsite
• Set up text triggers in a range around the campsite tile
• Adjust terrain surrounding campsite tile to keep the right feel and accommodate approaching from any direction
• Set up system to ensure directional reference is correct

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