Synopsis from the Game Level Walk-through Document

    “Open Sesame!” is a third person action adventure puzzle game[1].It is based on the tale of Ali Baba and the forty thieves of the ancient book “Tales of one thousand and one nights” translated from Arabic and known to English speaking audiences by “The Arabian Nights”.

The tales are told through the frame story’s main Character queen “Scheherazade” (Persian transliteration Shahrazad[3]  or Shahrzād : شهرزاد Šahrzād ) to King  Shahryar[4] (Persian: شهريار or "great king"). The tales are rich with fantasy and magic and are often described as being feminist in essence, since they focus greatly on women and their important role in society.

My chosen story features Morgana as the main female character. She is witty and cunning, a loyal servant girl who saves the day. 

And my game level and gameplay revolve around the story’s plot of the encounters between Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

        Most of the events of the original ancient tales were set in the cities of Iran and the ancient city of Bagdad in Iraq and some refer to taking place in India. So the level will be set in Near Eastern desert surroundings with rocks and palm trees and Islamic architecture and artifacts.

Narrative for the Player:

       When finally slumber engulfs these ominous nights upon that faraway Realm, the sinister King hastily retires to his quarters. For his Queen Shahrazad’s gentle voice will soon break the eerie silence. She unveils to him her stories one within another, with what will become her legendary words: “It hath reached me O auspicious King”. She then carefully goes on; “Ali Baba had found the robbers’ Treasure at the Secret Cavern. He had heard them call the magic name of the Rock Gate “Sesame” to open, and unload their stolen riches inside”.  She takes a breath and with a heavy voice she continues; “He decided he could borrow from the stolen treasure; the thieves have been since investigating the neighborhood”. And with animated excitement she declares; “The treasure items have been appearing at the souk and now the robbers know their secret is definitely out! The chief thief summoned the Chief Jinni to change the lock on the Cavern door.” And with the sound of a smile in her voice that she cleverly conceals from the eyes of the fierce King, she announces; “To save her household and keep it safe, Morgana, Ali Baba’s faithful servant is all over the place eluding and misdirecting the thieves!” …With those words the dawn crawls upon them! Wide eyed Shahrazad promises her outraged King to tell him the rest of the story if he would spare her life for the new day!
           Now, it is only in your hands the unraveling of events she will have to report to the fierce Shahrayar! … You better make it good!  A lot is at stake. And at this point a confrontation is inevitable… you better be ready… it’s only going to get more… well… Strange!



The Level Design is divided into three areas:
City Well
City Souk (Market/Bazar)

Magic Cavern

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[1] According to Rolling’s definition in Rollings, Andrew; Ernest Adams (2006) Fundamentals of Game Design, Prentice Hall; action-adventure games are a hybrid genre of action game and adventure game. The action-adventure is now more popular than either of its two constituents. Adventure games are an interactive story in which the player takes the role of the protagonist. Puzzle solving and conceptual reasoning challenges form the majority of the gameplay; physical coordination challenges are few or nonexistent. action games are games whose gameplay consists primarily of physical coordination challenges 

[3] "Shahrázád (Persian) = City-freer, meaning "she whose realm or dominion (شهر šahr) is free (آزاد āzād)"

[4] means 'Great King' (from the Persian words Shah and Zyad - High King)