Delve | Lead Designer | Unity
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Delve is a fast-paced 3D spelunking game built in Unity. You use a dual-mode grappling hook to explore giant underground caverns. I led the design process with a focus on responsive traversal mechanics.
Design Goals:
My main goal was for the movement and grappling hook to feel as fluid and intuitive as possible
I also wanted to make sure that players could express skill while traversing the level, and have a solid understanding of their trajectory while grappling
The levels were designed so that players should be able to explore the cave in multiple ways
The player can either swing in an arc with left-click, or they can pull themself towards the grappling point like a zipline with right-click. I wanted the player to have a lot of options for how they could explore the level. The crosshair changes to green when it is pointed at an object you can grapple to, and you are within grapple range of that object. I also added the ability to slightly adjust yourself left and right while grappling. This allows the player to make minor adjustments and feel more in control.
Tools Used: Unity, C#, Blender, Jira, GitHub, Audacity, Photoshop
Lessons Learned:
The movement and grapple system required multiple rounds of testing, feedback, and value adjustments.
The team and I decided to make the levels significantly larger than we initially planned, because it felt better to have a vast space to swing around in.
Grappling movement is most fun when players can anticipate trajectory and demonstrate skill
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