Player Movement

Apartment 20 is a puzzle platformer, so the movement requires careful programming for intuitive play. The player is able to move  their player character, Ace, with the arrow keys or the more standard WASD keys for forward, backward, left, and right movement or use. Automatic Jumping helps to make movement more fluid and the grappling hook is used to make platforming more interesting.

Auto jumping is done through what is known as a ray cast, which is something that helps detect collisions between objects. The character has ray casts in their chest and on their head. If the ray cast on the characters chest is colliding but the one on their head is not, then the player will automatically jump over the object.

Ray Casts Placed on Ace

The grappling hook was one of my most challenging tasks to this date as it dealt with aiming, player rotation, angles, prediction lines, and more. On the surface it may not sound like too much of an issue for things like player rotation however when it the player was no longer aiming the players rotation would not update and the player would try to move “like normal” with the “new rotation” due to aiming. When it came to the grappling hook itself, there were some issues that needed to be solved. Instead of a standard straight line for a standard grappling hook we decided to have it emulate a fishing rod and made the fishing rod connected to Captain Herman, the second character players will interact with in Apartment 20.

Grappling Hook Trajectory

The grappling hook initially could connect with anything and pull the character anywhere, but this was later changed to only certain key spots. Simply changing what layer the grapple hook could latch onto was the solution to this problem. Unfortunately, it took a bit of time to figure that out.

Madison M, Apartment 20 Gameplay Programmer

Game Mechanics: Grappling Hook, Bouncing, Carrying, and Ladders

Game mechanics are the foundation of any interactive experience, shaping how players interact with the world. There are four major mechanics in Apartment 20: fishing rod (grappling hook), bouncing, picking up and carrying, and ladders, all of which are utilized throughout the game for quest progression and exploration. These mechanics really add to the flavor and the juice to our game.

Grappling Hook

A grappling hook is a staple mechanic in many action and exploration games, offering dynamic movement and creative traversal opportunities. The grappling hook in our game, Apartment 20, will take the form of a fishing rod. The fishing rod will be used to help reach platforms or areas that can’t be reached by our diminutive protagonist, Ace.

Bouncing

Bouncing mechanics add an element of physics-driven fun and challenge, often used for platforming and momentum-based movement. Our movement is physics-based and revolves around the bouncing off of angled cushions to get to places the player can’t reach through conventional jumping.

Picking Up and Carrying Objects

Carrying some objects is essential for environmental interaction, being used in puzzle solving, traversing, and quests. The mechanic allows the player to move specific objects by either pushing or carrying the object depending on its size. The player does that by pressing the interact button while next to the object. The player then can move the object around and release it by pressing the interact button again.

Josh P, Apartment 20 Gameplay Programmer

Quest System

Apartment 20 implements a simple and linear quest system to aid in narrative development. While many games have quests systems with choices to encourage replay ability, Apartment 20 leaves its choices in the narrative system. During development, we decided that a major pillar of our game design would be immersive narrative. To implement this pillar, we decided that we would have to keep the gameplay, and therefor puzzles, simple.

This design choice naturally led the team to design our gameplay directly around the narrative. Is a resident in limbo giving hints that she wants to reunite with her husband before moving on? The player should explore to find something to remind the resident of her husband. Thus, the quest “Reconnection” was born.

In “Reconnection,” your goal is to help an old soul, Gladys, reunite with her husband, Herman. Luckily, they live right next to each other. During your quest, you must find you way from Gladys’ apartment to Herman’s; we achieved this through a puzzle platforming segment.

Designing this section of the game posed a problem to our team. How do we diegetically prevent players from leaving Gladys’ apartment early? Our decision was to put another quest in the way. When you finish Gladys’ first quest, you trigger her cat Priscilla to get up from her cat tree and reveal a path out of the room.

Integrating our quests with our narrative allows us to tell our story through gameplay. Players platform over a rich environment, motivated by clues in the dialogue. Players use these hints to solve puzzles relevant to the characters and their homes. Players are rewarded with more hints, written in the detective journal, that aid them in completing each quest.

Not only is our gameplay easy to design, with its links directly to our narrative, but it also encourages our team to work in close coordination. Our narrative, puzzle design, and programming teams develop the design of each level, each quest, and each line of dialogue to properly implement our vision. This workflow is vital to the coherence and consistency of Apartment 20.

Designing a fun and interactive quest system for a narrative driven game was a challenge, but a welcome one. We are proud to share this narratively driven quest system with you as you explore Apartment 20. Come chat, explore, and solve mysteries alongside Ace!

Mackenzie K, Apartment 20 Programming Manager