Jaguar House Storyboards and Statue Designs

Below are a couple of ideas for the Jaguar House, the final level of the game. The first image is taken from an actual sarcophagus from Mayan ruins. The slab slides back into the wall and reveals a staircase.

Ixtab is the Mayan goddess of suicide. Ancient Mayan literature tells us that Ixtab lures men into the forest where they meet their doom. In the Jaguar House, the player will have to watch out for engravings of Ixtab in a forest of pillars. If they pass between two pillars marked with Ixtab's image, they suffer instant death.

Below are concepts for various game objects that will appear in the Jaguar House. The player must find bones hidden throughout the level and return them to the mouths of the Jaguars. The last image is of a statue which raises out of the ground revealing a down staircase or an item like a bone.

Updates and Concept Design Reference Boards

We've decided to change the premise of the game from Aztec warfare to a Mayan temple exploration/puzzle game. There are several reasons for making the change; first, UDK is a lot more friendly towards 1st-person exploration games rather than real-time strategy games. We also decided to avoid strict themes of warfare and branch out into the possibilities of educating the player on Ancient Central American culture, agriculture, astrology, customs, mythology/lore, etc.

Making a game set in a Mayan temple complex opens up a lot of design possibilities. Here are some reference boards on the kinds of things we want to accomplish:

Game Revision & Breakdown

Game breakdown 

The primary game mode will be a first person single player experience. The player takes the role of a disembodied Mayan spirit on a quest to discover who they are and must go through trials to uncover pieces of their past. The setting of this adventure will be in stylized Mayan ruins that have begun to break apart and been overgrown.

Challenges the player will face will range from riddles about the spirit's past, basic plat-forming, or even speed challenges. Gravity will be the player's biggest enemy in most cases; in others the player's memory or skills solving puzzles will be challenged.

The game world itself will feel large in comparison to the player's avatar, the spirit. One room may be a narrow corridor but upon rounding a corner the player may encounter a broken wall revealing a striking view of the jungle around them. This will help anchor the world to reality and keep the game from feeling like a closed off maze that could be anywhere.

Structurally the game will be linear in most parts but in others providing decisions of where to go. Some of these challenges may lead the player away from their ultimate goal of self discovery or serve as bonus objectives. The false paths serve as a reason to pay attention to the dialogue of the spirit and what would help him most in his search at that moment. Throughout the game, and after completing challenges, the player will learn more and more of the spirit's past, his culture, and what his life was like. Upon reaching the end of the game the player will be presented with the full reality of who they were.

Game Concept1

Aztec Warfare

Aztec warfare is a risk like game which will have the player pay close attention to tactics and equipment in order to conquer new land and overthrow their enemies. The target audience will be those enjoy strategy games and careful planning before battles. In terms of age the targeted audience will be teenagers and young adults.

The premise of Aztec warfare is to put the player in the shoes of an Aztec king during a war. Before a battle the player will need to select equipment for their army that will best counter the enemy's equipment based on information given from scouts. The player may find themselves in an ambush if they push to aggressively after a retreating opponent and so will need to not only manage equipment well, but also think strategically before committing troops into a conflict. The farther the player pushes into enemy territory the harder the fights will become.

Aztec warfare takes place in a stylized and colorful world, in which the mountains are all carved geometric shapes and the plants are abstract patterns of color.