Samkhya Game Design

Having gathered all of the prior information, I wanted to design a game that fits into everything I’ve worked on.

Taking inspiration from The First Tree, I made a simple outline for the mechanics of the levels of the game

Overarching Design

Fig. 1: Overarching design

The overarching design was going to be a hub and spoke design, with influence from Super Mario Odyssey.

I was quite heavily influenced from Super Mario’s hub being a ship who’s sails need to be built with each passing level.

My game’s hub was going to be a dry landscape with a boat. The player would have to navigate through the various levels to be able to build the ship to travel to Yama.

The art of this landscape was influenced by an artist, Phillipe Charles Jacquet (‘PHILIPPE CHARLES JACQUET’ 2025)

Fig. 2:Dry landscape painting (‘PHILIPPE CHARLES JACQUET’ 2025)

Fig. 3: Screenshot of the dry landscape from the game (author’s screenshot)

Level Design

Fig. 4: Overall game loop (Author’s screenshot)

The hub was going to split into 3 levels – Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.

Each level signifies a characteristic of the human nature.

Tamas – Inertia, darkness and ignorance

Rajas – movement, energy, restlessness

Sattva – Light, clarity, knowledge, peace

Tamas

The level design for tamas was going to have to include the feeling of inertia, darkness and ignorance. The user would have to feel dull, depressed or stuck.

The following mechanics were implemented to reinforce that feeling:

Player can only walk, no sprinting
Mud slows the player down
Heavy silences, unsettling sounds
Player has to collect orbs – not too many, but not too little
Player could have a sprint timer, like in breath of the wild
Player would have to activate beacons – each beacon increases the player’s sprint ability

To help visualise the flow and loop of the level, I made a chart

Fig. 5: Tamas level design (Author’s illustration)

I noticed how this level could possibly turn out to be not fun, because it is meant to invoke the feeling of inertia.

I figured the architecture and visuals would keep the user from getting bored immediately, and if the user can sprint they would be encouraged to keep moving forward.

Using what I had learnt from “an architectural approach to level design”, I made a map illustration so I can sculpt the map later

Fig. 6: Tamas map illustration (Author’s illustration)

Rajas

The level design for Rajas was going to have to include fast movement, parkour elements and solid goals to reinforce the feeling of growth, energy and restlessness.

The following mechanics were implemented to reinforce that feeling:

Arrangement based puzzles (creates frustration, and satisfaction on achieving a goal)
Parkour based platforming
Linear level design

To help visualise the flow of the level, I made a chart:

Fig. 7: Rajas level design (Author’s illustration)

I also made a map illustration to help me sculpt later into the project:

Fig. 8: Rajas map illustration (Author’s illustration)

Sattva

Sattva breaks the loop of the last two levels. Sattva is meant to be different, since it is the closest to moksha (liberation), making it in some sense, the bridge between nature and primordial material.

In its essence, Sattva means calmness. It represents light, clarity, and knowledge. One can assume with evidence that knowledge can refer to the understanding that the soul never dies, and one must be detached from their actions through the knowledge that the soul never dies.

To illustrate this, I intended to employ a technique commonly employed in deep games.

The player would have to walk in a loop following other NPCs. The player has the option of cutting out, or running in the opposite direction as well, but that doesn’t have any effect.

The only way to stop the loop is for the player to step away from their computer. If the player steps away for about 7 seconds, the level changes to one that shows just their souls moving around in a loop, with the player in the centre.

To exit this level, the player would have to meditate, and after meditation, they would be transferred to the ship that takes them to Yama’s abode.

Here is a flowchart to help explain the flow of the level:

Fig. 9: Sattva level design flowchart (Author’s illustration)

Primordial Material Loop Level

This is the conclusion of the game. Nachiketa travels between the three levels (characteristics of human nature), and makes his way on his ship to Yama’s abode. The ship gets caught up in a storm, and nachiketa mysteriously wakes up on Yama’s abode, his ship broken.

Upon meeting Yama, a dialogue scene is triggered where Yama tests the user after Nachiketa asks him “what happens to the soul after death?”, and if the user passes the test, the player is transported to a primordial material loop level.

Here, the user is an orb in a dark environment, representing a soul, searching for anything, any trace of anything.

Fig. 10: Yama’s abode level design flowchart

In the distance is an abstract form, upon going near, they are given a body, and shown a life. This represents the line from samkhya, “The universe begins when primordial material comes into proximity with nature”.

Fig. 11: Primordial material loop level

Meditation Mechanics

Using the knowledge gained from the research done previously, I knew that the meditation mechanics had to have scaffolding mechanics, shouldn’t feel too forced, and has to be short and simple, to keep the user’s attention.

The meditation window would be prompted in the hub, when the user goes to the temple and sits under the tree.

The user would be given two options — meditate with scaffolding, or meditate for level progression.

Through the game, the user would have to meditate only 3 times to progress through the game. But if they wish, they can meditate more using the scaffolding menu.

Fig. 12: Meditation mechanics (Author’s illustration)

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