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For the end of my Master's degree in Interactive Digital Media, I had the pleasure to create a game with my wonderful classmates.
Together in a team of 5 we spent roughly 2 months in creating a new IP from scratch.
It was such a fun and amazing journey to work with such talented individuals.
It never felt like a project to me. It was more about enjoying the process of creating a game we loved making and, above all, one that would be fun for the players!
Team Size: 5
Roles: Mechanic Designer, Level Designer
Timeline: June 9th 2025 - August 21st 2025
Genre: 3D platformer
Engine: Unity
Description: A heartfelt journey of May overcoming her fears in her dreamlike world through a series of platforming and puzzles.
Responsibilities Include:
Designing mechanics and gameplay loop
Designing level progression and layout
Used Asana to identify and organize tasks
Created Level design Documentations
Table of Contents
Mechanic Design
Mechanic Design
Player Mechanic
Movement
The player can move in 8 direction by using "WASD" keys on keyboard and on controller the player can move in all direction by using the joystick.
Jump
The player jumps up by a set distance and is affected by gravity.
While the player is holding sheep they can double jump.
Glide
If the player is holding woof while in mid air, they can use woof to puff up and glide in the air, but it will drain the stamina bar on the bottom left.
Call
Woof can be called by the player on command and once called it will be held by the player.
Pick up
There are items throughout the level for the player to pick up and once held the player can throw it away.
Throw
No matter the object the player will throw it towards the direction they are facing in a set distance and trajectory.
Woof Mechanic
Movement
Woof follows the player and is affected by gravity. In its movement form it does not interreact with any object.
Answer call
Once the player calls Woof, it will fly from where it was to be held by the player.
Thrown
After being tossed by the player, Woof will be very obedient and stay there until being called. In this form, it will interact with any object.
Bounce pad
Woof's fur is super fluffy and if the player walks or jumps on it, the player will be launched up into the air
Level Object Mechanic
To make each level feel more unique and interesting, I would design specific platforming mechanics or puzzles that suits the theme of that level.
Level Design
Level Design
Level Documentation
I created level design documents by using google docs to communicate my design choices clearly to the members of my team. There are 4 in total and each follows the same structure, starting from Level Flow Chart, Level Beat Chart, Level Layout, Level Feel, Gameplay Items/ Mechanic and Asset List.
Level Drafting
In the beginning, I made sure to keep my teammates up to date with the level design documentations so they are happy with the design choices.
For example, in the Tutorial level draft, the team preferred Draft 3 as it provided a longer and simpler experience that suited best for the game's vision.
Whitebox
To understand the level concept better, I took the design into Unity's editor and created basic shapes using Pro-builder plugin.
Level Concept
Tutorial Level
From the narrative of the story, the first part of the game will be May waking up in her dreams and what a better way to convey this dreamlike feeling than with clouds.
I had this idea of May walking out from her hospital room into this open cloud area and she would have to platform between clouds and sky islands, but I still felt the level not being unique enough to create an immersive experience.
To solve this issue, I borrowed ideas from the fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk as I felt it would suit the narrative.
Additionally, I wanted to keep the platforming sequence and level mechanics simple for letting the player to be familiar with the player mechanics
Level 1
Following the narrative, this level will be set in a beach environment and so I had this idea of May going from different beach islands.
This however creates a problem where the gameplay is very similar to the previous level and to combat this I introduced newer types of platforms and mechanics tailored to the level to make the experience more refreshing.
However, I still felt something is missing as in the tutorial level the player got to climb the memorable beanstalk and there isn't anything similar like it.
To solve this, I pitched the idea of climbing the lighthouse in the end and the team loved it.
Finally, I made some of the platforms appear when a pressure plate is pressed to give Woof more of a meaningful purpose and the level more grounded.
Level 2
This level is one of my favorites as I really liked the narrative and it sparked many ideas of how I wanted the level to play and feel.
The idea is to create an ethereal journey where May traverses between mystical mountains through gliding and moving platforms.
To make this level more interesting I decided to make it night time with different object to emits light in the scene for a different immersive experience.
Level 3
This level is set in May's dad office in the narrative and I had the idea of May platforming up the bookshelf through normal and magical books then towards the desk through gliding and finally they would have to solve a puzzle.
I wanted for this level to be more puzzle oriented than others to give a refreshing change of pace.
Finalizing the levels
Asset Implantation + Level Polish
Once the assets were finished by our Asset Designers, I started replacing the whitebox with the intended assets to create the atmosphere I envisioned.
However as the development process continues, I felt the levels to be too boring and not visually appealing enough and so I updated the level layout along with newer assets.
Postmortem & Future Development
Postmortem & Future Development
I am super happy with how this project turned out with only 2 months of development. It was an amazing experience for me to hone my skills as a level and mechanic designer, but most importantly learning to adapt in any group environment to produce an immersive experience.
There are still lots of areas that I would want to improve on and these are the followings.
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