DELVE
Master thesis project, exploring emergent gameplay and mechanical depth with 4 fellow students.
Delve.mp4The Premise
Utilizing a grappling hook mechanic for traversal, a flare gun for vision and sanity as a resource that depends on light, we set out to create a high quality, skill based experience.
We were inspired by the roguelike genre and the design decisions from it that has lead to games with a high replay value. We felt however that the genre, more often than not, relied on combat to provide moment to moment emergent gameplay and we wanted to challenge that by taking a fundamentally different approach through platforming elements.
The final product does not entirely reflect the original intentions of a replay able structure, but has a mechanical depth proving the potential we were looking for.
My Role
Acting as Game Director and level designer I steered the overall gameplay vision in order to create a coherent experience throughout multiple rescope sessions to keep the project in line with the limited time frame.
I also frequently conferred with our art director to ensure the levels fit the aesthetics we were going for and wise versa, that the visuals benefitted gameplay.
