ROLE: Game Designer & Illustrator
PLATFORM: Analog Board Game | Duo with Paris Stacy
GENRE: Mystery, Horror
The Horror of Blackbrook Rock is a two player mystery game set on Blackbrook Rock, a mysterious island off the coast of New England. It is November 13th, 1892, and you are a group of detectives who have been called in to investigate a missing person’s case. However, something strange is a foot on the isle of Blackbrook. At the end of each day, a clap of thunder sounds, and you awake suddenly, arriving on the island that morning.
Puzzle Design & World Building
My work in Blackbrook primarily involved the layout and puzzle design of maps and documents collected by the players. Our game’s time period gave me design constraints that required me to conduct research into 1800s conventions of bookkeeping and apply that to our materials. We also aimed to integrate these design constrains into our puzzle mechanics to create an experience that lets players embody the role of a detective, down to the documents that players handled in real life.
The game’s main map, illustrated with a classical style while functioning as a player progress board.
An example of how we integrated a narrative puzzle into our visual design constraints is in one of the game’s early levels. Players are handed a Lumber Mill map sectioned in quadrants as well as a logbook of materials. Players can then select an area to visit and can read narrative blurbs from a playbook that could provide context or clues for one of the puzzles. The material logbook is provided to direct players onto points of interest.
The Mineshafts
World building was important in this project to create a horror mystery experience that is believable and compelling through a combination of visual design, puzzle design and narrative storytelling. One example of this was through our Mines area, where these elements were combined in order to illustrate the tragic collapse of the Witterel Oil & Co. Mineshafts.
I created a map of the mineshaft tunnels that players would collect upon entering the area. It was important that I paid attention into adding details on the map in order to create a balance of interpretation and imaginative storytelling.
Further exploration of the Administration building found in the map provides players “Document F”, which contains an old timetable that kept track of the miners and their assigned tunnels. Providing context to the individuals involved in the accident. It was also important in our goals to create documentation language that were consistent from the maps and supplementary materials in order for players to connect the dots and build their own understanding of space and history.
Village Sketches Puzzle
I also explored a different puzzle type in Blackbrook that employed environmental storytelling in Blackbrook’s West Hamlet. In this area, players are handed a map of the West Hamlet and upon exploration of Structure 13, players unlock a series of sketches depicting the hamlet. These sketches direct players to the area of the mysterious sketch artist by extracting detail from the building shapes from the sketches and using it in conjuction with the map. Solving this puzzle then leads players to the next major clue of the area.