Lily and the Graveyard Ghosts

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Lily and the Graveyard Ghosts
Studioto.be.announced
Erstveröffent-
lichung		2024
PlattformWindows & macOS
Spiel-EngineUnity
Genreto.be.announced

"Lily and the Graveyard Ghosts" is a game concept and prototype for the course Game Production of summer semester 2024, Digital Arts. This page is still unfinished and will be updated in the course of this semester.

Team List and Lead Roles

Name Responsibility
Jana Greiter Lead Programming, Game Art, Level Design
Janah Helly Lead Project Management, Lead Audio
Luise Kain Lead Game Design, Game Art
Samuel Klancnik Lead Level Design, Game Art, Story
Josefina Münstermann Lead Art, Lead Story

Vision Statement

"Lily and the Graveyard Ghosts" is a walking simulator with puzzle elements where you play as Lily, a young graveyard keeper. You can talk to ghosts to listen to their stories or problems and try to help them out. Throughout the game you get to explore the graveyard and unravel its age-old mysteries.

Game Mechanics

Basic mechanics/gameplay: Walk around - Talk to ghost - Carry out task - Repeat


Player Mechanics:

  • the player is able to walk around and sprint. Maybe crouch? You are also able to talk to ghosts (and maybe able to make choices) and interact with your environment (e.g. clean a ghosts grave)
  • Lily will also get a lantern she can use for light. She can also put it away or get it out whenever she chooses


Ghost Mechanics:

  • the ghosts appear around the graveyard (walking/floating around)
  • they talk to you about the happenings around the graveyard, giving you tasks, hints and information about themselves or your uncle
  • once you helped them, they may find peace and disappear
  • possible added animations to the ghost depending on their character


Level Mechanics:

  • there are different ghosts that spawn depending on which night you are currently playing (3 nights)
  • depending on your progress you can open up new areas around the graveyard, sometimes by using acquired items
  • maybe implement changes in the environment such as candles going out

Level Design

Legend:

E = Edna

G1, G2, G3 = Ghosts

Pink = First night

Yellow = Second night

Blue = Third night

Key symbol = Various keys

Particles = Dog pawprints


All nights condensed into one map:


Night 1:

Lily helps a musician ghost repair a broken violin, tools can be found in a locked shed, paw prints lead to the buried key in the animal section.


Night 2:

A soldier ghost asks Lily for help to get rid of the "annoying dog" that seems to belong to a bride ghost (it can be seen following her and is often at her father's grave - Lily doesn't know which grave). Bride ghost tells her that the dog isn't hers, initially doesn't want to help her and asks her to do a task for her. In her task, the player is prompted to enter the forest, but its revealed that Lily does not really like the woods and refuses to go into them. This makes the player search for a solution elsewhere, leading them to the big tree on the hill. There, Lily can pick up one of the tree leaves. Bride ghost leads her to the mausoleum area, the entrance is overgrown and can be cut with tools from the shed. The player will find that inside the father's grave there is a suspiciously locked door and Lily resolves to ask Edna, her ghost friend, about it.


Night 3:

Edna gives Lily a few ideas where the key to the mausoleum could be, Lily eventually finds it in in the old grave next to a lantern which can be repaired in the shed. Then Lily enters the mausoleum, finding old tunnels underneath it. She follows the paw prints to another soldier ghost who tells her more about Lily’s uncle and the soldier above - the player is motivated to search the tunnels and finds the mysterious door. She searches for the key within the tunnels. After finding it she opens the door - the game ends.


Story

After receiving a letter from her uncle telling her that she has inherited his graveyard, Lily, our protagonist, wakes up in her new cottage by the graveyard for her first night shift as the graveyard keeper. She is welcomed by Edna, a friendly ghost who helps her navigate her new environment. Now it is Lily’s job to seek out the ghosts residing in her graveyard and help them find closure with their lives. As she helps more and more ghosts, bits and pieces of her uncle’s story are revealed. Additionally, the graveyard may not be all it seems, as Lily will soon start to uncover the secrets hidden in the tunnels beneath.


More detailed descriptions of the levels/nights in the game:


First night:

The player encounters one ghost this night and learns some basic game mechanics.

The first night begins with Lily exiting her cottage and Edna, a friendly ghost, waiting for her outside. In a quick chat she welcomes you and assures you that she will be there if you have any questions. She then points you towards your first ghost.

He tasks the player to repair the violin, so the player is encouraged to look for tools. The player will find the nearby shed locked, however. Paw-prints on the ground right below the keyhole lead the player to the half-buried key by the pet cemetery. With this key the player is able to enter the shed and with repairing the violin sees that there are plenty of other tools in the shed as well.

The night ends with Edna congratulating you on your first successful day and wishing you a good day’s sleep.


Ghost description:

  • This ghost was a great musician in his life. However, he cannot remember how to play or if he ever played, yet he still feels drawn to a broken violin laying by a grave. He asks you to repair this violin so he may find out if he only imagined his connection to music or not. After repairing the violin in the shed, he will play you a beautiful song. Once he’s finished, he will cry tears of joy as he remembers his passion for music and finds closure.


Second night:

The player encounters two ghosts this night and learns more about the graveyard and its secrets.

The second night starts about the same as the first. Edna greets the player and points them in the direction of the first ghost, a fallen soldier who cannot accept that he has died and his war has long since ended. He is beside the war memorial and laments about his fellow soldiers, yet he asks no direct task to help him find closure.

Instead, the player is tasked to find a stray dog that has been bugging the ghost for quite a while now. He suggests that the dog must belong to another ghost, a bride, as he has seen the dog around her and her father’s grave repeatedly. Once the player has found her, Lily asks about the whereabouts of the grave of the bride’s father, which the bride ghost does not simply want to tell you because you are a stranger. By helping her the player gains her trust.

In her task, the player is prompted to enter the forest, but it’s revealed that Lily does not really like the woods and refuses to go into them. This makes the player search for a solution elsewhere, leading them to the big tree on the hill. There, the player also finds a plaque with an inscription of her great-great-great-grandfather who planted this tree.

After helping the bride, the player gets the location of the grave revealed. Once they have entered the mausoleum area with the hedge cutters, paw prints can be seen again leading to one of the mausoleums, evidently the grave of the bride’s father. Inside, the player discovers a large heavy door with a keyhole. Without any idea where the key might be, the player ends the night with the goal to ask Edna about this mysterious door tomorrow.


Ghost descriptions:

  • First ghost: This ghost was a soldier in his life. While he cannot remember which war he fought in or which position he held, he cannot seem to accept that his battle has been fought already. He does not ask for help directly, yet you are determined to bring him peace of mind. He does, however, suggest that you find a stray dog that has been visiting the soldier repeatedly and has annoyed him greatly. This ghost cannot be given closure within the game.
  • Second ghost: This ghost is found wearing a wedding dress and is clearly very upset. She tells you of her husband and how much she must have loved him, yet she cannot remember if he was just a figment of her imagination or not. She recalls the engagement happening under a big tree in a forest and that there must be a sign somewhere of that happening. She asks you to look for proof that her husband was real and that she is not alone in this world. In return, she will reveal to you where her father’s grave is. After finding the piece of bark with their initials and a unique symbol, the bride starts to weep as she now knows her husband will be waiting for her on the other side. Before disappearing, she will tell you the location of her father’s mausoleum and ask you to make sure the dog did not destroy anything there.


Third night:

The third and last night of the game starts with Lily asking Edna if she knows anything about the mysterious door in the mausoleum. She says she never really noticed, only that Lily’s uncle would spend quite a surprising amount of time in the mausoleum area, so maybe he knew of it. She recalls a key being hidden somewhere on the graveyard and hints the player towards its potential locations.

Once the player has found the key and an old lantern with it in the Old Grave, they can repair the lantern in the shed and open the door in the mausoleum. When they enter the tunnels it is dark, the atmosphere of the game shifts into a slightly more spooky one. The tunnels are built like a maze, however, the player is guided by the paw-prints to the first objective of the tunnels, which is the ghost dog and another soldier ghost who tells Lily that the dog is searching for its owner but always returns sad from its trips.

He reveals the dog to be a therapy dog, implying that he belonged to the soldier by the war memorial. However, just like the other soldier, this one also cannot be immediately helped. He is, however, more self-aware about it than the other soldier. In this dialogue he also talks about Lily’s uncle and how he used to come down here quite often, yet the reason is unclear to him.

Moving on, the player explores the tunnels further and ultimately finds a strange door with symbols and a puzzle of sorts. Something there implies that the “key” to open this door is hidden in the tunnels. The player is therefore prompted to search the tunnels for this item. After finding the “key”, Lily is able to open the door. However, as soon as she opens the door, the game ends, leaving the player to speculate what lies beyond.

User Interface

The general interface during the game has limited elements. Only the collected items are displayed in a corner of the screen.

  • Main Menu

    Main Menu

  • Pause Menu

    Pause Menu

  • Dialogue

    Dialogue

  • Items

    Items

Asset List

3D Assets:

Asset Group Type Animated Variations Notes
Character models Character 3D yes yes all of our ghost characters, simple idle animation
Gravestone Environment 3D a lot.
Fence/Wall Environment 3D some A kit would be cool
Closed grave candle Environment 3D Yes 2 off and with fire flicker anim
Lily's cottage Environment 3D inside & outside
Big tree Environment 3D yes wind anim
War memorial Environment 3D
Gate Environment 3D yes for forest entrance and mausoleum section. open/close anim
Mausoleum Environment 3D yes smaller, non-walkable ones
Big mausoleum Environment 3D for entrance to catacombs
Tool shed Environment 3D plus tools
Old Grave Environment 3D
Catacombs Environment 3D spooky
Hedge Environment 3D a few
Gate Environment 3D perhaps a bit broken?
War memorial Environment 3D
Graveyard Blockout Environment 3D
Catacombs Blockout Environment 3D
Forest Environment 3D/2D yes some maybe just 2D planes, since it's the background. wind anim
Lantern Item 3D Yes 2 off and with fire flicker anim
Keys Item 3D 3-5
Hedgecutter Item 3D
Violin Item 3D 2 broken & repaired


2D Assets:

Asset Group Type Animated Variations Notes
Start screen UI 2D would be funnnn Start, Options, Credits, Quit
Pause menu UI 2D Resume, Options, Quit to Main Menu, Quit (in the corner or sth)
Options menu UI 2D Volume, Graphics (optional), Display, Controls (at least to view the mappings)
Dialogue bubble UI 2D 2 one for Lily and one for the ghosts (maybe 3 if talk to multiple ghosts possible?
Lily portrait UI 2D some different emotions
Ghost portrait UI 2D yes all the different ghosts we have
Interact Prompt UI 2D for general interacting/picking up/talking etc
Inventory UI 2D just a simple background for item icons (might not be needed)
Pawprints Texture Environment 2D some
3D asset textures Environment 2D yea for all objects we need textures obviously, but it's done by the same people who model the asset
3D character textures Character 2D yea we also need textures for the ghosts, done by the same people who model them


Sound Assets:

Asset Group Type Animated Variations Notes
Talking UI Sound yes Either VA or sounds fitting the character
Menu click UI Sound & hover if we have time
Open pause UI Sound
Advance conversation UI Sound
Footsteps Character Sound yes
Pick up Character Sound yes depending on item
Interact Character Sound
Breathing Character Sound yes
Atmo Environment Sound yes
Door Environment Sound some normal doors and huge chunky door for mausoleum
Music Music Sound maybe background, menu, credits

Links

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