Spatial Design: Maze as Narrative Architecture

This week, I completed the foundational design and modelling of the garden maze, which functions as both a spatial puzzle and a narrative device. Rooted in the story world of MM & NN, the maze represents a shared dreamscape, inhabited by the two protagonists.

Inspired by the architectural logic and spatial surrealism of Monument Valley, the maze incorporates multi-directional sound cues that align with the game’s central theme of auditory hallucinations. These directional sound elements are embedded into the environment, encouraging players to navigate through hearing as much as sight—enhancing immersion through sound-driven spatial orientation.

In Unity, I constructed the maze as a hybrid of castle and temple architecture, blending monumental forms with layered passageways. To emphasize the “dream” and “illusion” themes, I applied a soft, pastel-toned colour palette (light blue, pink, and white) throughout the maze. The overall aesthetic references minimalist architecture with a whimsical atmosphere, reinforcing the narrative’s ethereal quality.

 

Environmental Immersion: World-Building through Visual Framing

To preserve immersion and conceal the technical layout of the Unity scene, I intentionally masked the terrain system and modified the skybox to simulate a floating island suspended in the air. This approach eliminates visible grid structures or map edges, contributing to a sense of spatial detachment from reality.

In the near field, I surrounded the maze with a stylized natural environment that harmonizes with the architecture, serving both as a visual boundary and a compositional frame. These visual layers ensure players remain focused within the intended diegetic space.

Additionally, the maze contains two diverging paths, leading to distinct narrative endings. This design enhances replayability and supports the thematic duality embedded in the MM & NN narrative structure.

Character Modelling: Bringing MM & NN to Life

Parallel to the spatial modelling, I also began implementing the characters MM and NN. Based on previously developed 2D concept sketches, I created their 3D models and imported them into Unity.
Their designs reflect contrasting identities—subtle asymmetries in colour, posture, and silhouette hint at their divergent perspectives within the game’s unfolding story.

 

Mar 25, 2025

March 4th

During the workshop we checked the different types of light in Unity and how they can be implemented in our Unity Environment.

Point Lights

They send light out in all directions equally. The direction of light hitting a surface is the line from the point of contact back to the center of the light object. The intensity diminishes with distance from the light, reaching zero at a specified range.

They are useful for simulating lamps and other local sources of light in a scene. They can also be used to make a spark or explosion illuminate its surroundings in a convincing way.

Spot Lights

Similar to Point Light in the aspect of a specified location and range over which the light falls off. However, a Spot Light is constrained to an angle, resulting in a cone-shaped region of illumination. The center of the cone points in the forward (Z) direction of the light object. Light also diminishes at the edges of a Spot Light’s cone. Widening the angle increases the width of the cone and with it increases the size of this fade, known as the ‘penumbra’

Spot lights are generally used for artificial light sources such as flashlights, car headlights and searchlights. With the direction controlled from a script or animation, a moving spot light will illuminate just a small area of the scene and create dramatic lighting effects

Directional Lights

Directional Lights are useful for creating effects such as sunlight. Behaving in many ways like the sun, directional lights can be thought of as distant light sources which exist infinitely far away. A Directional Light doesn’t have any identifiable source position and so the light object can be placed anywhere in the scene. All objects in the scene are illuminated as if the light is always from the same direction. The distance of the light from the target object isn’t defined and so the light doesn’t diminish.

Directional lights represent large, distant sources that come from a position outside the range of the game world.

Area Lights

They can be defined by one of two shapes in space: a rectangle or a disc. An Area Light emits light from one side of that shape. The emitted light spreads uniformly in all directions across that shape’s surface area. The Range property determines the size of that shape.

Since an Area light illuminates an object from several different directions at once, the shading tends to be more soft and subtle than the other light types. It can be used to create a realistic street light or a bank of lights close to the player.

Mar 5, 2025