Sketchup Designs for the Magic Show
Before creating a grey box level in Unreal, I decided to create a design in Sketchup to easily see the logistics of the level I wanted to create. These designs can be viewed below.
The player starts at the centre of a stage, an empty wooden table in front of them and an ominous looking cupboard behind them. To be able to complete the first magic trick – pulling a rabbit out of a hat, the player has to gather 3 items (a rabbit, a hat and a wand) and place them on the table in front of them.
To get these 3 items, the player must enter their magical cupboard and hunt the objects down. This becomes a hide and seek/hidden object style game where the player must explore the environment to be able to find the object.
Once the player has collected all three items, they will be prompted to return to the stage to perform their magic trick. They can return to the stage at any point to place the items on the table, but by the end of the retrieving each object they will be prompted to by the voice over. After placing each of the 3 items from their inventory on the table an animation will play of the rabbit being pulled out of the hat.
The first objective will be to find the Magic Wand. This puzzle is the simplest and is designed to introduce the player into the finding and interacting mechanics. The player will enter the cupboard and a voice over will play telling the player that they need to find the 3 objects, the first being the wand. He will then hint to the player that it is in the chest. As the player clicks on the chest they will find it is locked. Another voice over will play suggesting the player looks for a key in a drawer. Once the player has opened the drawer and retrieved the key (all by clicking on the objects) which will be added to their inventory. The player can then use this key to unlock the chest, revealing the magic wand.
The second objective is to then find the pet rabbit, Alexander. To find Alexander, the player should explore around the environment and find a pair of magical glasses, a voice over will guide them with a hint about being able to see where they went. When they put these on, they will be able to see things that were hidden before. Using these they can see a trail of paw prints leading under a table with a tablecloth. They now know where the rabbit is hiding and a voice over will tell them they have to lure the rabbit out. To do this, they must find a fruit and veg bowl placed on top of a stack of crates, and click on the carrot to add it to their inventory. They will then be able to put this in front of the table and the rabbit will hop out, allowing them to catch the rabbit by clicking on it.
The third objective is to find the hat to hide the rabbit in. This has the most complex puzzle. The player should look around the environment and come across a hat stand. A voice over will tell the player they thought they had left the hat on the stand. The player is then encouraged to look around the area, coming across a mirror. Clicking on the mirror will angle it to look at the hat stand, revealing the hat is in the mirror world. The player can then use the magic wand they collected to turn the mirror into the portal to reach in and grab the hat from the alternate world.
