The pickup mechanic was a simple idea I pitched to my team as a way to open up avenues for expanding player movement as a gameplay mechanic. 

At this stage in gameplay development, players were incentivized to move around the grid to build, temporarily mote to and buff towers, and generate energy as they travelled on beat. As the grid filled with towers, players would have less space to build towers and thus have no need to generate energy. Ideally, players would spend more time buffing towers in the mid-to-late stages of a level. However, in practice, gameplay variety would dwindle with time leading to player boredom. Additionally, aimlessly moving on beat in the early stages challenged neither the player's skill nor decision making.

By adding pickups, our designers could intentionally introduce phases to break up gameplay. Players could temporarily divert their focus from building and buffing towers to collecting energy, score, or health pickups in reaction to their performance and play goals (i.e. completion, scoring, or strategic play). 

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Whereas I would typically present documentation alongside larger system designs, I dedicated less time to research and documentation of the mechanic and instead drafted a quick mockup in Figma with some initial design ideas and potential concerns.

Doing this gave me the time and foundations to build a prototype in Unity using the pre-existing enemy prefabs and spawning system. 

Prototyping simple ideas directly in-engine can often give me insight into how a mechanic feels in practice and any unexpected issues or benefits that come with it.

In this case, I realized there was potential in varying the movement speed of pickups as well as their reward values. This could test player reaction timing and prioritization. Pickups could also be spawned during defense phases for addition challenge.

It also opened my eyes up to opportunities for creating unique hazards. For example; projectiles that could temporarily disable movement or steal energy. Instead, the player would have to avoid these projectiles while defending against enemies.

TEMP-OS gave me my first experience with visual development for UI. 

TEMP-OS was based on our student capstone project Dissonance. Dissonance was a short game experience with a much smaller gameplay, narrative, and artistic scope. We wanted to expand the scope of the project and give it a new visual & narrative identity better suited for a large-scale commercial game.

I previously did some UI design work for Carnegie Learning on Mathstoria however, I had the benefit of working with a pre-established visual language & identity. 

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As part of my process, I draw sketches, make mockups in Figma, and then draft prototypes in Unity to test my ideas before I create polished assets.

For that, I needed to gather UI references from games with sci-fi settings, cel-shaded styles, and in the strategy and/or rhythm genres. My goal was to recognize common design elements and language that players of those games would have familiarity with.

I initially drew a lot of inspiration from HiFi RUSH, Muse Dash, Arknights, Osu!, Rift of the Necrodancer, and even arcade cabs. You may recognize some elements from DDR & StepManiaX in the tower selection menu.

These initial concepts captured a lot of energy but were far too busy. Players already have their cognitive load divided between keeping tempo and strategic decision making. 

Some elements like the energy bar system were also restrictive on balancing. This was updated to a counter which necessitated updates.

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I simplified existing elements, reduced the number of colours and changed them to reflect associated gameplay mechanics, and changed the size of elements to establish a clearer visual hierarchy.

Some small iconographic elements were added so that players don't have to rely entirely on text. Additionally, these elements are animated to help players keep tempo.

Before...

and after!