My name is Jerrold. I'm a UX designer based in Singapore,creating engaging designs with a problem solving design approach.
Don't be a stranger! I'm always open to potential projects, learning and bettering myself in whatever capacity. Currently studying Game Design and User Experience at DigiPen 🏫,learning how to play the guitar 🎸 and playing video games 🎮(great excuse to learn about game design, don't you think?)
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03 HARU: A TALE OF REMEMBRANCE2023
PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Haru: A tale of Remembrance is a 2D Side-Scrolling Puzzle Game, where you play as Haru, a reporter in a quiet town helping others with her newly found powers of time control.
MY CONTRIBUTIONS:
I took on the role of Lead Designer for this project, and was responsible for coming up with initial game mechanics, level design and prototyping in Unity and the team's custom engine.
Gameplay Mechanics
Players have the ability to manipulate objects using time - freezing, slowing down, removing and revealing the true nature of objects! They will do so through the use of their newly magical phone camera, where objects in focus can be affected by the aforementioned abilities.
These abilities will be unlocked as the player progresses through the story, where players will be able to toggle between these abilities to manipulate different objects either to solve puzzles, or to aid them with their platforming.
Early Level Sketches
Level sketches were created to give context to gameplay mechanic usage and flow. Golden paths were also added to help illustrate where players would go.
HIDE AND SEEK LEVEL:
An example of how our level design was iterated. We wanted players to learn and master the use of the reveal mechanic, using it to find spirits hidden in the level.
Playtests found that the level was much too long for player engagement. We reduced the scope, and changed the location from a house interior to that of a mystical forest, where players would find 1 ghost hidden in bushes.
We also used the 'Do it thrice' rationale, where players would make a action 3 times, learning it the first time, practicing it on the second, and finally mastering the mechanic on the third.
FINAL LEVEL:Our final level was designed to ensure players would use most, if not all of the mechanics taught earlier in the game. The level is split into two halves, the top and bottom. The player, stuck at the bottom, will need to apply mechanics they've learnt to manipulate objects in the top half in order to help create platforms in the bottom half for them to jump onto and move along the level.
PLAYTEST FEEDBACK:
Over the course of the game's production, repeated playtests were held, allowing us to adjust the game as needed. Issues such as poor onboarding, lack of knowledge on active abilities, gameplay feedback were brought up. This allowed us to quickly address this and finetune the game further, such as tuning the camera speed when applying abilities, increasing player movement speed and so on.
LEARNING POINTS:One major learning point was to ensure a feasible game scope given the tight deadline of projects. Chunks of content had to be cut in order to meet deadline requirements. However, I was able to apply level design principles, along with understanding how to apply playtest feedback to improve gameplay experiences for players.