The plan:
Player spawns outside with a bit of a drop, implying they’ve just come over the outer wall of the ‘castle.’ (I’d love to add the SFX of a thud as the game starts) They must enter by a window on the other side of this courtyard, by climbing up some boxes, or something.
To reach this window, they are forced to walk passed an exterior that makes them aware of a room for which - once they’re inside, they must eventually realize - there is no entrance. Just a wall. Interacting with something on that wall will cause the first secret passage to open, letting them enter the suspicious room.
But there’s nothing of use to the player, in the room. It’s just a weapon’s cache. (“Free Fantasy Weapon Sample Pack”) This would be a good place to leave a hand written note mentioning the existence of a crypt. Maybe someone telling their boss that they’ve run out of places to keep the dead. (unstated: because the mausoleum is holding a bunch of treasure)
Regardless, this is a dead end. So what was its purpose? To mirror the same secret passage system that can be found on the opposite side of the room. The player now knows what to look for, and what to interact with to open these secret passages.
From there, the simple pressure-plate puzzle seen in the course’s opening will be implemented in the mausoleum. Though I might make it a bit more of a job, finding something to swap for the weight of the statue, on the pad. Maybe put the only grabbable pot in the weapons cache room… We’ll see.
For the sake of making the mausoleum into a proper treasure-room, I’ve pulled a free asset pack from the Epic Marketplace, called “Ancient Treasures.” I would’ve liked to find some basic shelving / book cases in the medieval style, to be used as the moving asset for the secret doors. But I didn’t find anything for free in the marketplace.
Maybe I’ll look for other free sources when the time comes… Or just make a mesh in-engine out of cubes/brushes and wood textures. Anyway, that’s the plan. We’ll see how near to it we still are by the end of this section.
