Machine Heart
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Team Project
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My Position: Lead Designer
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Unity and C#
A 2.5D Sci-fi Puzzle Adventure game where the player has to jump between storylines to progress. Each timeline features a distinct gameplay, including puzzle challenge and stealth adventure.
Design Process
1. The Pillars
Machine Heart strives to tell a science fiction story in an interactive and interesting way, making Puzzle, Stealth, and Narration the pillars of the game. I started with the progression layout of the entire game, to convey the game's structure clearly to both team members and faculties.
2. Level Design Rules
To let the player grasp the levels in a quick and clear fashion, I set up the level design rules for both puzzle and stealth gameplay.
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Visual Language: In puzzle levels, the interactable objects are highlighted with red and are placed in obvious locations. In stealth levels, Most of the viable covers are the same prop so that the player can form a heuristic on finding covers.
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Simplicity: Puzzles are restricted to 1 per area. Left with fewer options, the player can focus on their current objective, and are able to easily form mental connection in cross-timeline puzzles.
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Mechanical: Breaking from the "Key and Doors" metaphor, puzzles are designed to be mechanical. They operate like simple machineries (like lever and steering wheel) that requires less imagination and feel more interactive.
3. Design Doc and Greyboxing
Earlier in development, levels are designed in texts and built with simple geometry greyboxes with color coding to show important passages and interactable objects. Greybox levels also gone through repeated playtesting to make sure the design works as intended before investing the art resources.
3. Polishing
After the levels are tested to be interesting and understandable, I implemented the art assets in the levels and worked on several improvements in both cinematic story telling and level readability.
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Camera Movements: As the player walk through certain areas, I introduced camera movements for the "vistas" in levels, creating better atmosphere.
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Dynamic Environment: I requested and placed plenty of dynamic elements (birds, lights, smoke...) in the levels, creating a lively world to play with.