Out of Shape

I started this semester with lots of excited energy to help develop a game that others might enjoy playing. I was especially excited to collaborate with like-minded individuals and share a vision of a game that we could all call our own. And so far, it was a success, but not without some bumps in the road due to unforeseen circumstances. 

 

Along the way, our group lead, Lukas, started experiencing health issues that got in the way of some of his productivity, and so I was unexpectedly thrust into the leadership process. At first, this was a very hard transition for me, not because I couldn’t lead necessarily, but that I felt I didn’t have as good of a grasp on the ultimate vision of our game as our team lead did. As a result, I found myself struggling to think up appropriate tasks for all of our group members. Gradually, I started getting the hang of things, and as I continued building up the level, I found myself coming up with ideas that I could delegate to members of the team. After a while, it started clicking with me even more. I set up deadlines, ultimatums, reminders, and announcements in an effort to get tasks finished in time for milestones. In the end, I found myself enjoying the role of being a leader. It has taught me things I didn't even know about myself.

​

Over the course of the semester, my role was mainly that of a level designer and programmer. As I really enjoy the process of designing/building a level, I found myself conceptualizing many ideas for the game. It was tricky at first because our game involves shapeshifting and we were still having trouble figuring out how all the shapes will work exactly, but I kept telling myself that my best ideas will come out if I just start building something. Anything. And it worked! Even though we did not get our shapes mechanics fully implemented this semester, I figured out a way to utilize what we did have into a viable gameplay experience.  

​

    Some of the stuff I focused on this semester were creating a tutorial section that would help ease players into the game as much as possible, creating platforming sections that were just the right amount of fun, creating some puzzles that were neither too hard or easy, and implementing a level layout that I felt mixed in the right amounts of puzzles and platforming together into one cohesive whole. My ultimate level design goal this semester was to get a level flow into the game that felt natural and non repetitive. I didn’t want puzzle after puzzle, and I certainly did not want a game where players would have to stop too often to think. I wanted something that would move you along with the right amount of pacing. And to this end, I hope I achieved even a tad little of my portfolio goal; designing a level that just feels right.