The initial design started with the idea that every game action correlated to an instrument and they are came together to form a song that the player experienced as they progressed through the level.
All mechanics we wanted to implement we had to consider how the music will effect them. For example when the player walks they create notes with their feet, as a consequence of this whenever the player starts walking the animation needs to be in sync with the music. So when the walking animation begins it cuts to the correct frame in the animation so the feet will be on beat.
With the level being Foddian, flow was one of the most important elements to focus on designing for. We didn't want the game to be super difficult and wanted players to push on despite their failures. Each mechanic needed to be taught in a safe way and then challenged with the punishment of failure being losing progress. Then mechanics were pushed to be used in more complex ways in safety before then being challenged with falling being a risk.
Each section of the level represented a new layer of backing music being added onto the existing layers. As the player progressed the music would get more intense and then when they fell the music would fade away.
When I designed the level I wanted to playtest as soon as possible to see if the flow of the level engaged players. After playtesting the team found that the punishment for failure was too much due to how much progress they would lose to a mistake and how much time was spent covering the ground they lost. The problem was due to the length of the perimeter, to solve this the level had to be rebuilt with a smaller perimeter so that player's would lose less progress.
After the change in perimeter for the level lead to successful results, I then focused on making engaging gameplay beats at every point of the tower. I also ended up making a soft checkpoint in the level around the halfway mark, where the design of the structure would not allow the player to fall further then I certain point unless they jumped away from the tower. At the top is where the Icosahedron is located and the beats leading up to it have a big gap underneath to add tension to the moment, however the actual jumps are not the most challenging they would have encountered.
I programmed the character controller so that it could run, jump and shoot. I used Unity's particle system to create a particle trail for the bow. I programmed the eye targets so they would open a door when hit by the player's arrow. I also programmed the moving platforms, pistons and beat blocks collaboratively with another programmer.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was programming moving platforms and pistons to be bug free. Due to the project using a character controller instead of a rigid body we were encountering weird collision issues. I had to find ways to fix these issues such as creating my own collision function and programming the character to be a child of the object with which it moved.
I programmed telemetry so we could see each of our playtests inside Unity which helped a lot with bug fixing and balancing the difficulty. We implemented telemetry that would record the players position. I created a data manager that would read a spreadsheet imported and then store the coordinates in an array. Then that array was used to create particles on every data point.
This tool was used to bug fix, which beats were players struggling the most on and where players quit.
We collected a lot of playtesting data and surveyed our players. We used that data to inform us where we need to make improvement in the game. We then implemented the feedback and tested again where we found the data saying we made improvements in all of the areas we inquired about.
I learned a lot about being a team leader in this project, I got a lot more comfortable with the role and learned how to properly engage with teammates in a productive manner while keeping the tone light so we all enjoyed working on the project. This was one of the longest team projects I had been on and we all agreed post-mortem that we would like to work on more projects together.
See Other Work
The initial design started with the idea that every game action correlated to an instrument and they are came together to form a song that the player experienced as they progressed through the level.
All mechanics we wanted to implement we had to consider how the music will effect them. For example when the player walks they create notes with their feet, as a consequence of this whenever the player starts walking the animation needs to be in sync with the music. So when the walking animation begins it cuts to the correct frame in the animation so the feet will be on beat.
With the level being Foddian, flow was one of the most important elements to focus on designing for. We didn't want the game to be super difficult and wanted players to push on despite their failures. Each mechanic needed to be taught in a safe way and then challenged with the punishment of failure being losing progress. Then mechanics were pushed to be used in more complex ways in safety before then being challenged with falling being a risk.
Each section of the level represented a new layer of backing music being added onto the existing layers. As the player progressed the music would get more intense and then when they fell the music would fade away.
When I designed the level I wanted to playtest as soon as possible to see if the flow of the level engaged players. After playtesting the team found that the punishment for failure was too much due to how much progress they would lose to a mistake and how much time was spent covering the ground they lost. The problem was due to the length of the perimeter, to solve this the level had to be rebuilt with a smaller perimeter so that player's would lose less progress.
After the change in perimeter for the level lead to successful results, I then focused on making engaging gameplay beats at every point of the tower. I also ended up making a soft checkpoint in the level around the halfway mark, where the design of the structure would not allow the player to fall further then I certain point unless they jumped away from the tower. At the top is where the Icosahedron is located and the beats leading up to it have a big gap underneath to add tension to the moment, however the actual jumps are not the most challenging they would have encountered.
I programmed the character controller so that it could run, jump and shoot. I used Unity's particle system to create a particle trail for the bow. I programmed the eye targets so they would open a door when hit by the player's arrow. I also programmed the moving platforms, pistons and beat blocks collaboratively with another programmer.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was programming moving platforms and pistons to be bug free. Due to the project using a character controller instead of a rigid body we were encountering weird collision issues. I had to find ways to fix these issues such as creating my own collision function and programming the character to be a child of the object with which it moved.
I programmed telemetry so we could see each of our playtests inside Unity which helped a lot with bug fixing and balancing the difficulty. We implemented telemetry that would record the players position. I created a data manager that would read a spreadsheet imported and then store the coordinates in an array. Then that array was used to create particles on every data point.
This tool was used to bug fix, which beats were players struggling the most on and where players quit.
We collected a lot of playtesting data and surveyed our players. We used that data to inform us where we need to make improvement in the game. We then implemented the feedback and tested again where we found the data saying we made improvements in all of the areas we inquired about.
I learned a lot about being a team leader in this project, I got a lot more comfortable with the role and learned how to properly engage with teammates in a productive manner while keeping the tone light so we all enjoyed working on the project. This was one of the longest team projects I had been on and we all agreed post-mortem that we would like to work on more projects together.
See Other Work
The initial design started with the idea that every game action correlated to an instrument and they are came together to form a song that the player experienced as they progressed through the level.
All mechanics we wanted to implement we had to consider how the music will effect them. For example when the player walks they create notes with their feet, as a consequence of this whenever the player starts walking the animation needs to be in sync with the music. So when the walking animation begins it cuts to the correct frame in the animation so the feet will be on beat.
With the level being Foddian, flow was one of the most important elements to focus on designing for. We didn't want the game to be super difficult and wanted players to push on despite their failures. Each mechanic needed to be taught in a safe way and then challenged with the punishment of failure being losing progress. Then mechanics were pushed to be used in more complex ways in safety before then being challenged with falling being a risk.
Each section of the level represented a new layer of backing music being added onto the existing layers. As the player progressed the music would get more intense and then when they fell the music would fade away.
When I designed the level I wanted to playtest as soon as possible to see if the flow of the level engaged players. After playtesting the team found that the punishment for failure was too much due to how much progress they would lose to a mistake and how much time was spent covering the ground they lost. The problem was due to the length of the perimeter, to solve this the level had to be rebuilt with a smaller perimeter so that player's would lose less progress.
After the change in perimeter for the level lead to successful results, I then focused on making engaging gameplay beats at every point of the tower. I also ended up making a soft checkpoint in the level around the halfway mark, where the design of the structure would not allow the player to fall further then I certain point unless they jumped away from the tower. At the top is where the Icosahedron is located and the beats leading up to it have a big gap underneath to add tension to the moment, however the actual jumps are not the most challenging they would have encountered.
I programmed the character controller so that it could run, jump and shoot. I used Unity's particle system to create a particle trail for the bow. I programmed the eye targets so they would open a door when hit by the player's arrow. I also programmed the moving platforms, pistons and beat blocks collaboratively with another programmer.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was programming moving platforms and pistons to be bug free. Due to the project using a character controller instead of a rigid body we were encountering weird collision issues. I had to find ways to fix these issues such as creating my own collision function and programming the character to be a child of the object with which it moved.
I programmed telemetry so we could see each of our playtests inside Unity which helped a lot with bug fixing and balancing the difficulty. We implemented telemetry that would record the players position. I created a data manager that would read a spreadsheet imported and then store the coordinates in an array. Then that array was used to create particles on every data point.
This tool was used to bug fix, which beats were players struggling the most on and where players quit.
We collected a lot of playtesting data and surveyed our players. We used that data to inform us where we need to make improvement in the game. We then implemented the feedback and tested again where we found the data saying we made improvements in all of the areas we inquired about.
I learned a lot about being a team leader in this project, I got a lot more comfortable with the role and learned how to properly engage with teammates in a productive manner while keeping the tone light so we all enjoyed working on the project. This was one of the longest team projects I had been on and we all agreed post-mortem that we would like to work on more projects together.
See Other Work
Game Designer, Level Designer, Programmer
Kyn
Tools: Unity | Team: 3 People | Timeline: 5 Months
Game Designer, Level Designer, Programmer
Kyn
Tools: Unity | Team: 3 People | Timeline: 5 Months
Game Designer, Level Designer, Programmer
Kyn
Tools: Unity | Team: 3 People | Timeline: 5 Months
Summary
• Pitched project idea to team and collaboratively refined how the initial idea would work over the course of the project.
• Designed the level and then reiterated it based off of results from playtests and balanced level to keep players motivated to continue trying despite their failures.
• Programmed character controller which could run, jump and shoot their bow.
• Collaboratively Programmed the Mechanics: Moving Platforms, Beat Blocks and Pistons alongside another programmer.
• Programmer telemetry which would display a heatmap of all the playtests as well as their pathing.
Project Goals
For Kyn we wanted to create a project that explored how dynamic music could be implemented into a 3D platformer. We wanted every game action, both player and world, to correspond to a sound/instrument that put together formed a song. We also wanted Foddian gameplay which meant there were no checkpoints so we had to balance the Level Design well so the game would not become too frustrating.
LINK TO GAME
Summary
• Pitched project idea to team and collaboratively refined how the initial idea would work over the course of the project.
• Designed the level and then reiterated it based off of results from playtests and balanced level to keep players motivated to continue trying despite their failures.
• Programmed character controller which could run, jump and shoot their bow.
• Collaboratively Programmed the Mechanics: Moving Platforms, Beat Blocks and Pistons alongside another programmer.
• Programmer telemetry which would display a heatmap of all the playtests as well as their pathing.
Project Goals
For Kyn we wanted to create a project that explored how dynamic music could be implemented into a 3D platformer. We wanted every game action, both player and world, to correspond to a sound/instrument that put together formed a song. We also wanted Foddian gameplay which meant there were no checkpoints so we had to balance the Level Design well so the game would not become too frustrating.
LINK TO GAME
Summary
• Pitched project idea to team and collaboratively refined how the initial idea would work over the course of the project.
• Designed the level and then reiterated it based off of results from playtests and balanced level to keep players motivated to continue trying despite their failures.
• Programmed character controller which could run, jump and shoot their bow.
• Collaboratively Programmed the Mechanics: Moving Platforms, Beat Blocks and Pistons alongside another programmer.
• Programmer telemetry which would display a heatmap of all the playtests as well as their pathing.
Project Goals
For Kyn we wanted to create a project that explored how dynamic music could be implemented into a 3D platformer. We wanted every game action, both player and world, to correspond to a sound/instrument that put together formed a song. We also wanted Foddian gameplay which meant there were no checkpoints so we had to balance the Level Design well so the game would not become too frustrating.
LINK TO GAME