Embedded Files
Level Designer
Designed all three levels for the game. They are the apartment, rooftop, and house levels.
Designed UI screens for each level to tell the player useful new information and mechanics.
Implemented the locations of all of the people in the game.
Adjusted the range and area of the ray cast of the people for game balancing.
Design Process
Design Process
The overall design process for this game was incredibly efficient from the start. We really liked the idea of a friendly ghost that helps out families instead of haunting them. The people in the game would be constantly in danger of hazards and the ghost would have to save them. We decided upon this premise and ironed out the core game design mechanics after a couple of hours. The game design mechanics was designed to be closely connected to that idea, such as the fear meter being the loss condition and the people patrolling different rooms. After that, it was just implementing the features and playtesting.
Level Design
Level Design
The idea of the first level was fairly simple as it was the layout of an apartment room. The tasks would involve everything that the man could do in his apartment. I would space out the location of the tasks so the gameplay wouldn't be too easy or stale.
The sketch of the second level would largely remain the same in the final version. The second level features the same apartment of the first level, but with the addition of a rooftop wedding. Players are introduced to more tasks on the rooftop, which increases the difficulty.
Placement of Enemies
Placement of Enemies
For the second level, the dynamics of the game changed drastically. We introduced 5 more enemies that would patrol the area, making it harder for the player. This aspect was tricky to design for.
To the left is the sketch of my design process of the specific placement of the different people in the rooftop level.
The numbers above/below each person corresponds to the area of the map that they will patrol.
During our playtesting, we noticed that the level was too difficult so to balance the game we ended up reducing the sightlines of all of the enemies in the level. This made it much more managable for the player while still making it challenging.
Loading Screen with Helpful Information
Loading Screen with Helpful Information
I came up with the idea of implementing loading screens that would tell the player useful information before the next level. We didn't want the player to be confused on what to do once they enter the game. The images on the screen would prepare them for mechanics as well as what the levels look like. Here are my sketches for them that ended up being in the final version of the game.
Reflection
Reflection
The design process was fairly straightforward since we decided on the mechanics early during the process. I made sure to playtest a lot early on to ensure that the gameplay was fun but not too easy. I learned a lot about the importance of communication since it was the biggest team that I was apart of: 12 people!
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