Escape From The Fey Forest
Escape From the Fey Forest is an immersive fantasy escape room game I designed with two other classmates in my Games & Performance course. We were tasked with pitching a game rooted in performance with an assumed unlimited budget. For our pitch, we were asked to compile a game design document with a game flow summary and details regarding costume and set design, as well as design a few potential puzzles for the game, this would all then be pitched to the whole class as a final presentation. In our proposed game, players will find themselves transported to the Fey realm however they have no information of how they ended up in this world. Players will then split off into two groups to go down two marked paths. Down each path are different puzzles and NPCs to encounter, the players will receive shards to build a portal out of the fey world as they complete tasks and solve puzzles, as well as slowly regain their memories about how they ended up in this world in the first place. For our game, the two paths act as a way to sort the players into “teams.” Half the players will discover that they are changelings, lower-class fey determined to replace the humans in the human world who had lost their memories after a botched attempt to replace the humans. The humans on the other path will discover as they regain their memories the fact that the changelings were responsible for them being stuck in the fey world. As a result, the two opposing paths must cooperate to collect the portal shards they need to escape, however, they will slowly realize they cannot trust the other side as they get more information about their situation. In the final act, the two paths converge and face off to win the Fey Queen’s favor in the final confrontation for the final portal piece which will determine whether changelings or humans might pass through the portal. This game is intended to allow for roleplay and has multiple endings depending on how the players perform at the puzzles as well as choose to interact with the NPCs.
Structure of our proposed space/set (above)
Concept Sketch of the starting area of the game (below)
My Contributions
For this project, I took the lead on creative direction for the proposed set design of our escape room. I created multiple concept art sketches to incorporate into our presentation as well as broke down the logistics and expenses of our proposed idea. Through laying out the overall structure of the space we wanted I was able to create a more tangible idea of how our game structure might look like with the idea of players going down two separate paths with a final converging area for the big boss showdown at the end. Additionally, I worked as a game designer for the project and assisted with developing our escape room’s overall structure and game flow. For this project, we were given the open-ended task of creating a Performance Game with a theme of our choice. From this, I ideated the initial concept of an escape room where players “recovered” their memories as the game progressed as well as the setting being in a Fey realm. I worked with my group members to further develop this idea, and eventually, we ended up with our final idea an escape room set in the fey realm where players will split off into two groups completing different puzzles down each of the paths and recovering their memories about how they ended up where they were as they completed tasks. I then wanted to find ways to utilize this concept of two separate paths for players that would give reasoning for our choice. For example, I designed a puzzle that would require cooperation between the two separate groups to complete as well as the concept for an area that would allow players from the two separate groups to relay information to each other (magic mirror room). This provided a unique puzzle where players had to rely on each other but were not in the same physical space. Finally, I was responsible for creating our pitch deck and structuring our overall pitch for the final presentation.
Finished Room with set pieces and actor playing a wounded wizard
First Trial
In the beginning stages of the project, my group and another group within the class worked together to create a sort of “trial run” of our games in the form of a short immersive room experience with us acting as NPCs for our classmates to play. This was designed over a week and was intended to combine the two ideas from our groups and resulted in a game where the players roleplay as magical familiars and upon entering a single room must interact with Fey as well as search the room for certain materials to concoct a potion to heal the wounded wizard. The players were only allowed to enter one at a time and limited in time they could stay in the room, as they sequentially entered they were able to piece by piece solve puzzles and collect the necessary materials to beat the room. This acted as a trial for some of the set design and puzzle ideas for our final game so while it is not the game, I felt it was important to showcase this preliminary stage in our design process.
Deliverables
The main deliverables from this project is a Game Design Document detailing the game flow and concept of our game as well as a pitch that includes multiple concept art pieces and puzzle examples of our game.