Worldhopper

Welcome to Scadrial, my dear traveller!

This is a prototype of a Mistborn game that focuses on just a couple of aspects: the atmosphere of Era I Scadrial and the design of gameplay mechanics involving push and pull powers.

In my mind, the complete game would be a single-player, third-person action/adventure, featuring a Sanderson-level storyline and combat based on the three magic systems from the Mistborn books.

I love Jedi: Fallen Order  and Survivor, so I’d love to create something similar, only set in the Cosmere. One planet and magic system per game!

Since I don’t own the rights to even attempt something like that, but really wanted to make this prototype, I gave myself a time limit of two weeks per objective. So, I’ve spent a month playing around with it.

To make it as polished as possible in such a short time, I used some third-party assets from the Unity Asset Store that I already own. You can call this an “asset slop” if you want. Creating assets or level design wasn’t the main goal here.

Maybe in the future, I’ll come back to this and implement a combat system, just for fun.

The Environment

I wanted to make the atmosphere as thick and immersive as possible, with ash falling from the sky at all times.

I added a day/night cycle to experiment with different moods: reds and oranges during daylight, and blues and blacks at night (beware of the mists around town at night!).

I also had some time to create a basic environment for the main menu, inspired by the Cognitive Realm (or Shadesmar) as described in _The Stormlight Archive_. It’s not 100% accurate, but for the time I spent, I really like how it turned out.

The Mechanics

I wanted to translate the main mechanics of a Mistborn for environmental traversal and combat, but in a way that even a casual player could master quickly. The challenge is that push/pull mechanics are fundamentally based on physics, and I wanted something a bit more cinematic. The player should be able to control the character by instinct, not math. :)

To do this, I defined three types of metal objects:

• Static: Objects so firmly attached to the ground they can't be moved (e.g., the chimney of a house).

• Dynamic: Objects that can be moved. Depending on their weight, the player can move them, or be moved by them.

• Coins: Used by the player to perform big jumps or shoot like bullets using "push." With "pull," they can be retrieved from the environment.

The purpose of static objects is to let players traverse the environment easily (when appropriate), giving a cinematic feel without worrying too much about angles or forces.

I know this isn’t lore-accurate, but trying to "fly" using push while dropping coins mid-air isn’t something I can implement in a couple of weeks, at least not in a way that feels satisfying.

I wanted rooftop traversal to be fast, fun, and visually appealing. So, when the player selects a static object and presses 'pull,' the character flies toward and lands near it.

Selection of Metal Objects

Each metal object in the scene has a radius that defines when the player can sense and interact with it. Metals within range are represented by thin rays connecting the object to the player. By pressing the selection button (LB or the X key), the player can choose one of the available metal objects nearby.

To improve the chances that the selected object matches the player's intention, the system prioritizes metals currently visible in the camera view. This means metals that are hidden from view won’t be considered when cycling through selectable objects.

Burning of metals

There are a couple of level meters on the bottom-left side of the screen showing how much Iron and Steel the player has left. Using Push and Pull consumes the corresponding metal (Pull consumes Iron, Push consumes Steel). If a level reaches zero, the power can no longer be used. However, in the demo, the player has 3 vials of each metal in their inventory.

Burning a vial will fully refill the corresponding metal level.

Things to Improve

The whole thing is just a glorified prototype, so almost everything would need a lot of work before being considered finished.

However, there was a third objective I didn’t mention earlier: to finish the prototype. To achieve that, I had to stop trying to make everything perfect and simply move on once things were functional enough.

• The character controller is basic, and occasionally frustrating.

• Animation blending while using metals is too simplistic.

• The camera setup is decent but would need a lot more work to be production-ready, especially for the "Aim" behavior.

• The sound design is pretty awful, but I’d rather have bad placeholder sounds than a silent game.

• The UI is fine for the prototype, but it’s static. More animations and sounds would be great.

• The keyboard controls make no sense. I rarely play games on keyboard, so… yeah.

Performance

I played (and recorded video of) the prototype on a PC with a GTX 1070 Ti, which is a fairly old GPU. I assume it should run on any modern rig.

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I don't plan to keep working on this prototype for now, but please feel free to share your feedback. I hope you enjoy the proto!

Author: Jacinto Sevilla Esteban

Third party assets by:
Astrofish Games, CatsPawsGames, Ciathyza, Hoax Games, Imphenzia, Invector, John Leonard French, Josh H, Maskim Bugrimov, Mixamo, Oranged Keys, Protofactor INC, Vefects

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Disclaimer: This is a non-commercial, fan-made game prototype based on the Mistborn series and the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson. 

All characters, settings, and lore are the property of Brandon Sanderson and Dragonsteel Entertainment.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Brandon Sanderson or Dragonsteel Entertainment. It is shared for free with no intent to profit. Its sole purpose is to showcase a personal design and development exercise within a beloved fictional universe.