Little Nightmare: Enhanced Edition

Platform:

Windows PC

Engine:

Unreal Engine

Language:

UE5 blueprint

Tools Used:

Unreal Development Kit, Photoshop

Duration:

8 weeks

Completion:

2023

Team Size:

Role:

Concept, prop and texture placement, lighting, blueprint scripting, all gameplay scripting.

Improved Prototype Design

Enhancing of Little Nightmares 1: Integration of a New Level with Unreal Engine 5

Introduction

Overview of 'Little Nightmares 1': A brief discourse into the franchise and its fundamental point of contention within the game development scene.

Expansion Rationale: Explain the reason to extend gameplay duration and enrich the player's experience.

Objective: Informing that the gaming experience would be enriched by incorporating a new level, underlining that advanced functionalities provided by Unreal Engine 5 would be used for design and development.

Conceptualization of the New Level

Inspiration and Setting: Detailed description of the new level setting - an abandoned library under moonlight, its thematic relevance to the game atmosphere.

Extended storyline: How the new level supports and strives to take forward the main plot of "Little Nightmares 1" and connect it with the old storytelling.

Design Process Using Unreal Engine 5

Using Unreal Engine 5: Applying the Unreal Engine 5 with its improved lighting, rendering, and audio functionality for imbibing an eerie ambiance in level designing of game levels set inside a library.

Sketching and Blockout Stages: Elaborating the sketching, modeling, and environment arrangement preliminary steps during the design concept using UE5 tools.

New Level Innovative Game Mechanics

Sound-Based Stealth Mechanics: Provides a new mechanic that uses sound and touch for an enemy NPC that visualizes the player at all times. Describes how Unreal Engine 5 carries out complicated strategies of artificial intelligence as well as algorithms of detecting sound.

Challenges and Puzzles: The design of the puzzles and challenges - this will now ensure that said content aligns with the new stealth mechanics, where players have to think strategically and act carefully in order to succeed.

In preparing new levels for "Little Nightmares 1," I made sure that it enriched not only the depth of narrative but also space utilization and enhanced the gaming experience of the player using advanced AI for our enemies. I constructed an elaborate AI system to dictate the behavior of these enemy NPCs and so bring these sophisticated adversaries to life through the powerful visual scripting system provided by Unreal Engine - Blueprints.

To the right, there's a screenshot of the blueprint I used to program the AI of our non-playable characters (NPCs). This is a visual script that works as a base of the artificial intelligence (AI) of the NPCs, which provides to the NPCs the ability to perceive the actions made by the player, make decisions by themselves, and move through the world of the game dynamically.

The blueprint interacted with various core AI elements like the behavior tree to decide on its behavior, blackboard to track down the variables and states, and special navigation paths to patrol any specific routes of NPC. Each glowing icon on the floor represents a waypoint in the patrol path that the NPC walk unless stopped by actions taken by player. This system thus develops unpredictable and immersive game experience as the enemy responds to the user's various maneuvers thereby increasing the challenge level of the gaming experience.

The blueprint in the Unreal Engine editor is very neat, as shown in the screenshot. It is an incredibly neat and user-friendly layout that ensures continuous development and modifications can be effected efficiently.

This blueprint and the AI logic embodied within, of course, represents a fundamental contribution to the 'Little Nightmares 1' experience, one which not only introduces a higher degree of interaction and intelligence but really stands as a testament to the creative and technical potential of those behind the development of game adversaries.

By including this blueprint screenshot in our design documents, we give the development and production team an uncompromised view of how complex it is to create a gaming environment that enthralls players with its immersive gameplay. The inside look into our AI design process here not only serves to be a valuable asset for the development team, but an enrichment of understanding and appreciation as to the intricate work that goes into game development for your audience.

Content Addition and Narrative Expansion

Incorporation of Notes and Lore: Discussing the handwritten notes made by the "guests" that share the history behind them and how they fit within The Maw to give the game another level of rich lore.

Personal Art Integration: Explanation of the personal artwork by integrating it into the game world by making use of the unreal engine 5 asset management system.

In the new level design of "Little Nightmares 1", I paid special attention to enhancing the narrative and game experience through visual art. To this end, I used Adobe Photoshop to create five illustrations. These illustrations are presented in a children's style, aiming to tell the deep stories in the game through concise and intuitive images and text. This unique artistic choice was made not only to give the game an air of innocence, but also to add a layer of mystery.

These hand-drawn illustrations are cleverly integrated into the game's notes and become a key element in revealing the story behind "Little Nightmares 1". Each illustration is carefully designed to capture the details of the game world through a child's perspective and expression, creating a contrast that is both innocent and unsettling. Through these illustrations, players can not only have a deeper understanding of the game's background story, but also discover clues to solve puzzles during the exploration process.

Throughout the design process, I paid special attention to the coordination between the illustrations and the overall style of the game. Each work is carefully drawn after a deep understanding of the theme and atmosphere of "Little Nightmares 1". These illustrations not only supplement the game narrative, but also enrich the player's gaming experience. Not only do they add layers to the game, they also provide players with a new, more interactive and immersive way to explore.

Another important narrative expansion presented in the upgraded version of "Little Nightmares 1" is the incorporation of five original notes, which are presented in a picture with sophisticated design resembling children's one. The technique used to make those notes draws a picture reminding children make with help of Photoshop and tells originally twisted story and give bigger depth and context to the game’s universe.

Note 1: The Gourmet's Beginning Journey

and most delight in what kind of exciting events might be about to follow, mapping out the structure for the progression of the story.

Note 2: The Mysterious Allure of The Maw

The second note refers to the mysterious encounter with The Maw. It refers to the irresistible allure guests have towards this mysterious being that signals their irresistible transition into a world unknown.

Note 3: The Irresistible Metamorphosis

The story here takes a darker turn of strangulation, showing that the guests were bewildered and before they knew it, their transition from the cruise ship to The Maw was gradual, almost supernatural. This note symbolizes their first loss of self-control.

Note 4: The beginning of change

The transformation is beginning to be made in changes coming over the guests since they enter The Maw. That poignant note makes them go from their gourmet identities into a state of uncontrolled greed and indulgence which is the start of the phrase moral decay for the guests.

Note 5: The Complete Transformation

The final note illustrates the whole transformation of the guests to those badly voracious eaters in the game. It connects their past as gourmets with their current woeful states, and an analysis or commentary on the horrors of excess greed and loss of self-control.

Scattered across the new level, these notes provide not only clues and narrative elements for the player but they are a key link between the new level and the original storyline of "Little Nightmares 1." Their integration into the game supports a distinction between The Depths and The Hideaway as living quarters while at the same time enriching the reader's gameplay experience by offering new insights into the backstory of The Maw and its inhabitants.

Player Interaction / Level Dynamics

Exploring and Engaging: Studying the player interaction in the new level to understand how the mechanics of level design have supported exploration and engagement.

Enhancing Player Experience Using UE5: Leveraging features presented by Unreal Engine 5 to develop a more interactive world that responds to the actions of the players.