ABOUT THE PROJECT
DESCRIPTION
1 Player Puzzle Game.
Embody a fallen angel, prisoner of the Arcanum Maze.To get out you’ll have to use your powers to shift gravity by rotating the whole world around you
Solve puzzles, dodge deadly traps and find redemption ! Playtime 1-2 hours.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- Level Design
- Lead Game Design
- Lighting
- Additional Level Art & Building
TASKS
I was tasked to design the main gravity mechanic, the level 3, the level 4 and a cut level 5. Later in the project development I took the responsibility as lead game designer.
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TASKS - Level Designer
As the levels 1 & 2 introduced the player to play around with the gravity without being in danger, it was the responsibility of level 3 & 4 to introduce the player to the dangers of the gravity cubes and the first lava cubes, which both can kill instantly the character.
Original level 5 goal was to ensure that the player understood correctly the air control. As playtests showed that after level 4 all players understood the mechanic correctly, the level was cut due to a lack of time and priority in the production.
In the middle of the production, we felt that the paths and the general artistic direction was pretty dark and we decided to use lights to show path and add contrast. As our artist was already overwhelmed by work I decided to make a few simple crystal and lamp props to use as lights.
One of our programmer suggested that the colors of the lights could evolve during the course of the game. As it is a idea that would increase the sense of progression and difficulty, we integrated a system to change the color of the light dynamically each time a new level is loaded.
TASKS - Lead Game Designer
In the middle of the production, I was assigned to the role of Lead Game Designer.
To get the project done, focus on priority and dispatch tasks to everyone involved, we decided to use a Trello board to divide the work between art, programming and game design division.
It was really helpful to stay on track and be aware of current priorities and issues.
As a lead game designer, I had to keep track of the progression of everyone and be the main bridge between the game design and programming divisions.
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PRE-PRODUCTION & PROTOTYPING:
In the very early stages we already knew that we wanted to do a physic-based puzzle game. The constraint given for our assignment was to make the game with 2.5D Graphics.
We twisted that rule by creating full 3D levels and using traditional 2D plateformers' movement.
Building puzzle levels without having the possibility to actually rotate the paper like it would in game was mind melting. It was also very inefficient, hard to to prototype on a flat surface and difficult to communicate onto (eg: the picture of me laying on the ground, explaining a camera mechanic to the team).
So, to better explain the levels to my team whilst being able to prototype roughly without having my mind melted with the gravity and world-rotating mechanic, I built a small cardboard cube wrapped with a whiteboard sticker roll.
One of the first iterations of a feature complete level.
Building the physical Whiteboard Cube
The Whiteboard Cube !
