Ordinary Island

Game Details

Genre: Puzzle
Duration: About 45 minutes (or less if you follow the answers in the pause menu)

Concept: Imagine you’re on an island that is floating in the air, where nothing is as it seems. To perceive the world in a new way, you must close your eyes and focus on what cannot be seen, but only felt. I would love to give away a bit more, but that would spoil the message we want to send, but my advise would be to solve the puzzles and really think about the ending (you will know if the game ends).

Tip: Use the map image to get an idea where you are and where you have to go.

Tip 2: If you struggle on any of the puzzles, you can view the solution from the last-minute done pause menu :) 

P.S: At the bottom of the page, you can find the hidden gem of the game (which we would prefer that you find it by playing the game), that contributes to the theme as well. Make sure you read it before voting, in case you missed it!

Controls

Mouse - Look Around
WASD / Arrows - Movement
LSHIFT - Sprint
SPACE - Jumping 
ESC - Pause Menu (with also puzzle solutions)
TAB - Toggle Worlds (we call it closing your eyes)
E - Interact

Map

Short Gameplay Video

Unfinished

There could be a bug or two as we couldn't test fully. We couldn't make much time for the sounds and UI (which also doesn't appear in some resolutions), however, the core gameplay is there and the idea we wanted to create. Map also turned out bigger than we wanted, but it was also our first time working with the Terrain tool.

Design

Here are part of the designs we created along the way:

Third-Party Usage:

All the 3D models and sounds are from the Unity Asset Store. The 2D designs are hand-made and we used ChatGPT to speed up some of the process, but 90% of the code is coded without any AI.

SPOILER (ONLY VIEW IF YOU WON'T PLAY THE GAME (OR YOU ALREADY DID))

The theme was a bit of a challenge for us and even before we begun, we thought that the closing eye and perceiving another world mechanic wouldn't be enough. Then it hit us, what is the most ordinary think that a puzzle game has - solving puzzles (obviously).

When you start the game, you spawn near a big dungeon door and four empty books around it, which lets you think that you have to open it, probably by solving the puzzles on the map. Once you solve the puzzles, there is a cutscene that the big door in the beginning opens, however, when you go back there is literally nothing behind the door, just a hole. The difference is that the books have now been open to certain pages, which explains what you have to do.

The interesting part is that in our game, you don't have to solve the four puzzles marked on the map, in order to win. All you had to do is follow the clues around the map, which are exactly the same as what you see on the final pages. All you have to do is jump off the island and fly away. When jumping off, there is a short story that appears for you to read about that.

FULL GAMEPLAY VIDEO

Bridge: 00:25
Find Your Way Back Puzzle: 1:15
Pillar Stone Puzzle: 2:38
Labyrinth Puzzle: 3:20
Mirror Puzzle: 5:30
Beat the Game: 6:50