Capsize

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Features

Simple and multi-step puzzles from first-person POV
Environment-flipping core mechanic
Non-linear level design
Explosive game feel
Diegetic UI
Amusing opening and closing cutscenes
Camera and visual effects to guide players
Explorable futuristic environment

Development

The central mechanic of Capsize – namely, flipping the environment to walk on the ceiling – was a promising idea that my classmate John-Paul Depew and I knew could produce dozens of fun spatial puzzles necessitating players to view problems from multiple perspectives. This mechanic led to the locale of a spaceship with shifting gravity, which we eventually decided would be under attack from explosive missile strikes! With five weeks to complete development for a grade in an advanced game development class, my partner created the mechanics and many objects in the game, while I mapped out and implemented the puzzles.

Design

A Puzzling Dilemma

When designing the puzzles in Capsize, I had three goals:

The puzzles had to increase in difficulty.
The player had to feel free to explore and play in their own way.
The scope of the project had to remain realistic!

I carefully satisfied these constraints with the puzzle completion order depicted here. I had the game begin in a central room with nowhere to go but to the first blue orb, which immediately opens two doors when accessed. This would allow players to feel pride from a small victory and understand the basic rules of the game. But critically, it also opened the game world to the player by giving them two options – a big room on either side to explore.

At this point, the player can see several orbs in either room, but only two of them are immediately reachable. Reaching either of these initial orbs requires the solving of simple puzzles that teach the core mechanic of flipping the ship. They also unlock more challenging puzzles in the opposing room once they're accessed. When all these puzzles are completed, the player is surprised with one final puzzle back in the central room! This system lets the player choose how they want to explore the ship, while also letting the difficulty scale as they play.

The individual puzzles themselves require the player to think critically of the space around them and how they can use the gravity flipping and platforming mechanics to achieve their goal.

An Explosive Experience

While the gameplay is cerebral, the story is anything but peaceful. To feel immersed in the peril of being under attack, the player is treated to countless explosions throughout the game. Most of these are achieved by randomly, yet constantly, playing one of three screen-shake effects and explosion sounds. But players are in for a bigger shock when they reach designated areas that trigger nearby explosion effects, complete with a fiery visual! Amusing cutscenes at the start and victory screens help flesh out a simple story of explosions and flying away from them!

A Helping Hand

An easy development pitfall with a challenging puzzler like Capsize is allowing players to get totally lost. This is why I employed several tricks to keep the player on track, in addition to the difficulty-scaling level design. First, is the camera use. The game begins with a slow pan-out of the central blue orb, making it obvious that this is the key object. Clicking the orbs triggers a door opening cutscene, which shows the player what they need to do.

Second is the diegetic user interface. To let the player keep track of their progress, each time they access an orb, a band on the robot’s arm corresponding to the color of the accessed orb lights up. This form of UI allows the game to communicate important information to the player without the addition of a HUD, which can often get in the way of a game’s visual style and immersion.