The Secret of Gillwood – Solo Project - Henrik Johansson

Project Details

Role: Founder
Time: 1600-1800h
Team Size: 1 Developer

Engine: UE4
Genre: Single player Platformer
Theme: Mysterious
Released: Steam 19/03/28

The Secret of Gillwood is a single player game set in a dark and mysterious linear world. The player takes control of the most faithful Guardian of the gods.
Your mission is to help the gods of Gillwood, to uncover the mystery that suddenly silenced the town.

This started as a side project to work on my Level Design and worldbuilding skills. However, after getting feedback the level design project switched focus to a game development project.

My focus was to make the world feel mysterious, dark jet still have a warm and cozy atmosphere.

When an Orb has been picked up the player gets rewarded with a small cinematic that shows the new area that’s been unlocked.

Top Down Map View

Early Development - End of Development

The Picture shows the progress of the first area, from alpha to release. To make things clearer for the player I cleaned up a lot of the clutter and added 2 more light sources to help guide the player and all the lights got updated with a light shaft to add an enhanced feeling of mystery.

The picture shows the progress of the first area that was developed, from day one to release. A lot of updates but the core vision of the area is the same.

At the start, the world was covered in snow and the text on the doors was feeling too out of place. The snow got replaced with rain to make the game run better and added fog to lower the visibility. The text got changed to feel more magical and make it easier to spot in the world.

Level Design Higlighted

The first puzzle platforming area beside the arena. I wanted to give the player options on where to start, so the players can start from inside the arena or walk on the side path upon the wooden staircase. I placed small light sources on top of the poles to help the player spot them out. There is a lot of light sources that guide the player to the orb outside the picture.

This is how it looks when the player enters the town, I decided to block parts of both sides to create a straight guiding line towards the start of the next platforming part. There are lights on both sides to guide the player to the start and more props can be found on the starting side. I also show the door that will open when this platform part is completed.

I wanted to give the players two ways to complete the second platforming part. The picture shows how the two routes start at the same place but take a different route to the endpoint. There are small light sources added to the poles to make it easier to find out where to go.

The last platforming area is inside a narrow cave, this is because I wanted to give a sense of accomplishment to the players. The player has to use the knowledge gained from the outer world to uncover the secret of Gillwood on top of the cliff wall.