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The Master Thief

The Master Thief is a fairy tale I found to use for my theme for my level design. The prompt was to use any fairy tale that you can turn into a playable game and design a level around that concept. I chose The Master Thief because I wanted to find something unique, something that everyone else wouldn't pick or even know of. After a few hours of searching through wiki pages of fairy tales I came across The Master Thief and it stuck. The project was restricted to only use what was provided to us through a package.

My Twist to the Story

In the original story a thief steals cattle from a farmer who is walking them down a path. For each of the three times the thief steals from him he does so in a clever way. The first being he leaves a high quality shoe on the side of the road, the farmer notices it but passes by because what would he do with just one shoe? The thief leaves the second shoe further down the road where the farmer takes note of it and realizes if he goes back for the first shoe he has a full pair. He leaves his cattle and quickly heads back for the first shoe, after his cattle is left alone the thief takes the cattle. He does this two more times, at this point you should get the picture. 

My twist is that instead of a farmer and cattle, it is a wizard and magic gems. Along with that and due to the restrictions I needed to find work arounds that would help me make the game work. 

Visit 1

Each visit, the procedure the player needed to take to get the gem would change and more enemies would be added to ramp up the difficulty. Day one, or Visit one is simple, climb the cliff into the Wizard's land, then get into his tower to find the gem. Once inside, the player will search the tower for the gem; when found, the player will need a key to get the gem. When the player finally has the gem, they can leave the tower and head back down the cliff to escape. 

Visit 2

(Due to some restrictions and other issues, this changed from the original plan so the layout doesn't quite match up.)

Day two or Visit two, the player now has to deal with the two more hazards of patrolling golems. The gem is now located outside in a tomb-like structure. The player still enters the tower to find a note that hints to a location where a button is hidden. Once the player activates the button, the door of the tomb will open and they need to grab the gem and escape. 

Visit 3

(Due to some restrictions and other issues, this changed from the original plan so the layout doesn't quite match up.)

The final visit is more challenging. The procedure to get the gem is to once again get into the tower, and find a paper with a riddle. Each part of the riddle references a different part of the Wizard's home where there is a hidden golden apple. When the player approaches one of the apples, a sound will play to let the player know they are near it. Once all three apples are found, they are placed on three pedestals and a button appears, the button unlocks the hidden fireproof armors and allows the player entry past the fire wall into the basement. Once they grab the last gem, they head back for the last time and escape. 

Screenshots

TheMasterThiefLevelOverView.png

This is the overall view of the map in the game. The main idea for this game is that the player will visit the same area multiple times, in this case a wizard's tower and steal a magical gem from him, but with each visit it gets more difficult and changes some things in the level. With each visit the wizard makes golems that will patrol the outside while the player will need to find a way to get into the wizard's tower and find the gem. The gems are located in three locations on different visits. First gem is in the tower locked away in a cabinet. The second is locked away outside in a stone tomb-like building. The third and final gem is located in the basement of the tower and is blocked by a wall of fire. The player needs to sneak around and pickpocket the keys to the tower and solve puzzles the wizard has designed to keep his gems safe from unwanted thieves. 

TheMasterThiefGoldenAppleRiddle.png
TheMasterThiefGoldenAppleRiddleSolved.png

The two pictures above are the final puzzle in the game. The last puzzle is to find three golden apples, each hidden in different parts of the map. When the play is near one of the apples it plays a sound effect to notify the player they are near one of them. When the player has all three apples they can place all of them on the pedestals and a button will appear when pressed it will open the bookcases to reveal fire armor which allows the player to path through the wall of fire blocking the entrance to the basement. 

TheMasterThiefGoldenTheThirdGem.png

This is the entrance to the basement, from here you can see the third gem in the back. 

Note: The white C in the corner is an indicator for the enemies. (It is a "?") There is a golem that patrols the basement to protect the gem, the enemies were bugged in the package where the indicators above their head doesn't swap out properly so they constantly have a question mark above their heads.

Known Issues: 

  • The overall player movement can be a bit troublesome to use. As I stated, I did not make any player mechanics and only made the level layout. So players have a long jump and a buggy grapple.

  • There is a bug that kills the player if they fall too far. It is meant to reset the distance they have fallen every time the player touches a collider, but it occasionally wont reset. (The best way to ensure it resets is if the player jumps once in place when going down a distance.)

  • Some things are not obvious that an action happens because there is no sound. There are sounds, but only for a few objects.

Gameplay

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