Mason Achilles

Game Designer



Station Zero



Escape Room Game





The Station is in critical condition so you need to find a way to last escape pod in order to survive, but the station has gone into phase 2 of 3 lockdown so power needs to be preserved so overide codes are needed for some doors and the on-board security bot needs to be disabled. Can you make it out alive?


Download from Itch.io

Screenshots



Agent james >



Final map overview >



Menu UI >



HQ room with Droid >



This game was a solo project i made for a submission but was a nice learning curve for me.



“Station Zero” is a third-person puzzle escape room, the player is told he needs to evacuate the station as a large asteroid is heading straight for the station and there’s nothing, we can do to stop it. The station is on lockdown, so they need to find the coloured keys that are scattered across the station to open the corresponding-coloured doors. Some doors and require a code the open that the player will need to find, hidden in the notes they can pick up. They have need to figure out how to deactivate the security drone in the main room so they can pass by it, and they also need to find all the keys in order to access and use the escape pod.



The Main Character





The Enemy Droid



Your name is Agent James, you’ve been in space on station 92 for 12 years now and have seen many close calls but your current situation is one of a kind.





Level design





Above is the initial design I made for my level; I went with this design so that the player must explore the whole map to get to all the areas accessible without having all the doors open. At the bottom is where the player will start where some doors are open, but majority are locked, and they will need to find different coloured key cards to open the doors. In the middle you can see where the final door is placed however this door is guarded by the stations Security droid. At the top you can see where the player can escape after putting the last puzzle together to leave the station. On the right you can see that this room was changed to a staircase that leads to an extension upstairs that then takes you into HQ.



Key events of gameplay



• Escape room puzzle – The player learns the mechanics for the level, learning they can pick up keys and notes to help then progress.


• Door Opening – Each door will give access the new areas and new items to move on further


• Computers – Some of the computers are still working and have some information for the player to read to help them solve other puzzles but to also gain access to areas and objects



Simple UI Designs



The first designs of how i imagined my UI to look like, these are remakes of paper designs



Main Menu - Nice and simple for its purpose, a play and exit button with the title



Using computers - When using computers the UI will be simple Click and Go



Game scene - Keeping it clean so the player is not confused with whats on the screen



Death - If the player dies or runs out of time the player will be given the option to restart or to quit



Win - The player wins and is given a short message



The enemy





1. The player starts in the far end of the station with a large marker in front of them that is the first note


2. The only room they have access to is the hub room where the first key is placed and the second note, these items have a particle system on, so the player learns that these are the items they are looking for. They can see another room but needs a code to enter it


3. The orange doors are now open, and they can access the connector corridor and the admin room


4. In the connector corridor has a yellow door and a red door they can’t access yet and a note they can pick up that’s pinned to the vending machine


5. Going into the admin room they can see a lit computer with another key next to it but locked away, this computer has logs containing info they will need later and a program to release the key chamber, however they need a code, and, on the computer, it says the code was “left on my desk”


6. Going back into the hub room where the note said, on the desk is a page saying the code that the player needs to look at but can’t pick up


7. Going back to the admin room and entering the chamber code will release the yellow key


8. Picking up the yellow key opens the yellow doors for the player to move on


9. Going into the bedroom they will see a note on the window about the observatory passcode, the code is the same year as the build date of the station that’s logged on the admin computer


10. Opening the observatory will show another note computer and the red key, opening the red doors


11. Opening the red doors will show the security droid on high alert, if they enter the ground floor they will be detected and will restart the game


12. Going upstairs to the second floor (where the note said the computer for the droid is) will allow the player to access the computer to deactivate the droid


13. They will see also another key on a floating platform that they will need to jump onto the pickup the key


14. Picking up the green key will power up the pod (as told in the notes) and will allow the player to use the pod


15. Going into the pod room will show the escape pod and they need the access code the leave


16. If they have been picking up the notes, they will know the code and can escape.



The security droid being one of the puzzles, this droid stops the player from enter the main room that connects to the final room, without solving this you cannot win



game flow



puzzles





Puzzle 1 - The First door



When the player spawns they are in front of an orange door they need to get open.


Solution


The player needs to go into the hub room and pick up the orange key, this is an easy key as is used as a give away for what the player is looking for. Use colour coordination for keys to doors.



Puzzle 2 - Yellow Key



The next door being locked is yellow so the player should learn that they need a yellow key, and this key is locked in a chamber where they need to access the computer to open it


Solution


​The player will need to read a note on the computer that says the code is in the hub area, going to the hub and looking on the first desk will show the code being 1532. Entering the code will release the key so the player can pick it up.



Puzzle 3 – Observatory



The observatory is locked by a keypad that the need the code for


Solution


In the bedroom there is a note saying that the code is the same as the year the station was built, this information is found on the admin computer. Reading this note you will see the station was made in 1894. Entering this in the keypad will open the door revelling the red door.



Puzzle 4 – Droid



The security droid won’t let the player enter the ground floor where the droid is until its deactivated


Solution


Going upstairs (where the note says to go) make you way to the computer on the balcony and inputting the droid code (found on the note) 6760 this will deactivate the droid and turn the light blue allowing the player to enter the ground floor.



Puzzle 5 – Pod



After picking up the green key on the floating platform you can use the pod now, they need to escape


Solution


Using part 1 and part 2 of the pod notes will give the full code for the escape pod, if they don’t have the notes they can’t escape, enter the code 4990 the player will escape and win.





ACHILLES STUDIOS