HEY there Escapist!
Today’s blog is about HEY - or, if you’re not one of the developers of Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, then it’ll be known as A Clued Awakening to you!
This blog will be a little bit different, mainly because we’re not showing off a level you haven’t seen. If you’ve played the demo (and we hope you have!), then you’ll be familiar with this level as the very first thing you see when you start a new game.
A Clued Awakening was one of our first chances to begin playtesting Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, and it was the first time we committed to scrutinously playtesting a section of the game with the community.
HEY was first seen en masse at Summer Games Fest, the same place that we announced Escape Academy 2!
With our announcement and rise in playtests, Escape Academy 2 truly felt like it was put to the test at this point. This was when we really started cracking down on tidying up the narrative, as well as making sure that the way the early game was flowing was solid.
While the entire game is very important to us, as developers (and players!) the first moments of the game are extremely important. It’s where you’ll find a brand new initial look of the updated Academy, and make an impression on all the returning players coming in on that iconic tram (that’s you!). More on that later.
The Founders of the Academy are a very important part of Escape Academy 2’s story. We can’t give away too many details as that’d lead to spoilers, but including the Founders at the very start of HEY was a good way for us to set up for that facet of the story, while also giving players a very familiar environment (A classroom!) to explore.
There’s so much more I’d love to gush about on the topic of the Founders - but you’ll have to wait to get the full story 🤫
Something about waking up to the spikes in the ceiling falling while you’re still recovering from the memory-gas-grogginess felt magical to us. However, as great as this intro was, that doesn’t mean it was completely without problems.
Starting with something as dramatic as this does a very good job of conveying tense emotions to the player; there’s this sense of urgency, needing to quickly find a solution, especially when the timer starts ticking down! Having 15 minutes to figure out all of the controls isn’t optimal for most players/ Intensity is very good - but panic from the player is bad. We didn’t want to compromise and lose any intensity in this level, so over time, we made a plan.
Say hello to TIC - that’s short for Ticket! While not an “escape room” in the traditional sense, this level functions as a tutorial for the player, while also setting up the narrative as you prepare to travel to the Academy for your second year.
Here, you’ll be expected to get on the tram in an ORDERLY fashion. Absolutely no running, jumping, or funny business (😉). In here, you’ll get familiar with the control scheme, puzzle interaction, and more!
However, getting the ticket won’t be your only challenge. You’ve also got to get the tram ready to go, which will require you to solve a quick puzzle! It’s not too challenging, but we think that’s perfect for something like a first level. It gets you familiar with the interaction system, and allows for an opportunity for us (the developers) to catch the player off-guard with the sudden intensity immediately followed.
And if you can’t figure out how to get a ticket to the Academy, well...maybe you should’ve stuck with community college.
HEY was a truly excellent way for us to move along the story without a lot of dialogue and without needing a ton of player-NPC interaction. Being able to interact with the story while playing the game reduces the amount that we’re breaking immersion, and prevents dialogue from taking up too much of the player’s time. Lastly, it also means that there’s more than one facet for the story to be comprehended through - so all you dialogue skippers (not) reading this won’t miss out!
Hopefully, this look behind that scenes at a very familiar level was something you enjoyed! Making HEY was a ton of fun for the team, and it was our introduction to what a vertical slice of the Escape Academy 2 experience would truly feel like. Ever since that moment, we’ve been dedicating to recapturing that magic in every other section of the game (while making our own new magic, of course!)
Let us know what you thought of this one, don’t forget to say hi to us in Discord, and as always, we’ll see you in the next.
With Love,
Coin Crew Games 💛💜