Noisy Knight [Working Title]

Core Contributions

Overview

Noisy Knight is a 2D Puzzle Stealth game all about managing your volume while sneaking your way through enemy territory. The set up is you’re a clunky armored knight who woke up in the middle of a dark museum and needs to find a way out. Your goal is to navigate levels without being caught by the guards, using your environment wisely to dampen your noisy movements and evade perception to reach your goal.

Game
Design

With this prototype I really wanted to home in on a stealth game focused on a character who’s inherently bad at being sneaky. The idea is heavily inspired by games like Metal Gear Solid, Mark of the Ninja, and Ghosts & Goblins. Though, unlike in those games, I wanted to lean more into the puzzling aspects of stealth and put the player at more of a disadvantage. This isn’t a game about taking out your enemies, it’s one where you’re meant to manipulate and avoid them. This isn’t a game about a master assassin; it’s a game about an out-of-place dope trying his best.

That’s where I settled on the idea of it being a knight. Partially inspired by how heavy armor gives you a stealth penalty in DnD. The story wrapper that I’ve been leaning on is the idea that this is a Knight who woke up one day in a museum and is just looking to get out without harming the innocent people who also might be trying to arrest him.

At the game’s core is the “Noise Bubble” mechanic. Anything that makes a sound in the game will generate Noise Bubbles. Their size is determined by the perceived volume, their color by their origin/priority, and their perception by objects overlapping with them. The key to all this is that the bubbles interact with each other. Stronger noise bubbles will overpower weaker noise bubbles, making it harder to perceive them. For example, if the player walks beneath an alarm, their loud footsteps will be muffled, causing the noise bubbles to reduce in size.

This mechanic is heavily inspired by how sounds are represented in Mark of the Ninja, and the old meme about Solid Snake alerting guards with the clap of his butt cheeks. Anything that makes a sound in the game will create noise bubbles that can interact with each other. My goal with it was to create something that was simple but flexible enough to create a variety of scenarios around it.

State of
Development

Currently I have a prototype for the character controller, Noise Bubble mechanic, and AI Controller set up in UE5 using a combination of C++ and Blueprints. The character is able to move around at various speeds, generating noise bubbles of varying intensity based on his actions. Noise Bubbles interact as expected and will retract to avoid overlapping with other noises of higher priority. AI will respond to noises appropriately and chase players through scenes after perceiving them.

Further
Development

The next steps for this project is to flesh out the concept into a playable demo demonstrating the core game loop. This will require some time to develop the level layout, additional traversal mechanics for both player and AI (stairs between levels, ladders, vents, etc.), and a game state tracker. I also want to take some time to get a few more assets in, like a proper effect to represent noise bubbles and additional animations/effects to convey the state of the player and AI enemies.

I also want to start establishing systems to prepare for when the visuals get a bit noise-y with the number of noise bubbles that could potentially end up on the screen.

As for beyond, I also have a good few concepts that I would love to explore with this game some day if the opportunity arises:

• Varieties of enemies designed around limited senses (can only see/can only hear/etc.)

• Scene objects that cause reverb that can extend or change the nature of sounds

• Items that may add additional complexity to levels, such as cameras, fire alarms, breakable objects, etc.

• A level where you’re competing with an AI rival who is an actual stealth master. On top of your usual goal of avoiding capture, you’ll also want to use your noises to expose the rival to cause them to get caught.

  • Alternatively, a level could also be designed around leading NPCs away from this AI assassin, to foil their attempts of harming innocents.

• A rhythm game style level where you must hit a tricky sequence of moves to stay within range of a pulsing sound. If you fall behind or misstep, the sound will not suppress your noises causing you to get caught.