Cheers!

My roles in this project were:

• Supervising the development department by helping define the code architecture, conducting code reviews, and assisting in bug fixing.

• Designing the Game Design and Level Design of the game, and drafting the GDD (Game Design Document) and TDD (Technical Design Document).

• Monitoring and managing the progress of the project in the departments I was responsible for, and coordinating with other departments to handle integrations.

This game was created by the students of the GAME 34 master's program, under the supervision of myself and my colleagues (at the time, I was an instructor at Bigrock), as the final thesis project of the course.

The production of this thesis took two months of work. 

The team that worked on Cheers! was composed of:

• 1 class from the ART course, primarily responsible for concept art, artistic pre-production, and UI design.

• 2 classes from the GAME course, who handled the creation of game assets and overall development within the engine.

• 4 instructors from the ART course, each overseeing their respective departments.

• 3 instructors from the GAME course (myself included), divided among the development departments.

The goals set for this thesis project were:

• To guide the students in creating their first complete and functional game

• To meet the two-month deadline

• To maintain a level of organization across departments that ensured every student was consistently engaged and had the opportunity to learn

• To create a fun and enjoyable experience

Below, I will detail the gameplay choices and features that I designed for this project. 

The core gameplay idea was to create a game that could be described as “Little Alchemy meets Overcooked”. 

The goal was to take well-known design concepts, adapt them appropriately, and stick to the isometric co-op style, a style I particularly appreciate for games that aim to be exciting and highly replayable, while also being feasible to develop with limited time and resources.

The implementation therefore involved the "elements" taking the form of crates that players could move and manage within the game space, using machines to perform combination or duplication operations.

In addition to the element discovery component (inspired by Little Alchemy) and the synchronization and coordination between two players (inspired by Overcooked), several unique gameplay features were introduced:

• Spatial management
  Some maps could limit the available storage space for crates or modify how that space behaves. This could influence gameplay in interesting ways, requiring players to think more strategically about positioning and movement.

• Element duplication
  Keeping a copy of each discovered element is essential—but it's easy to accidentally lose an earlier element, especially when acting quickly or without proper coordination. This adds a layer of tension and resource management.

• Player positioning in the environment
  Combining elements requires both players to be present, but the level design could force the pair to split up or encourage them to divide roles strategically for maximum efficiency. This mechanic emphasized cooperation, spatial awareness, and adaptability.

The gameplay concept I aimed to deliver was heavily focused on creating a fast-paced experience where the fun would largely stem from cooperation under pressure.

However, in a game centered around combining elements, this required players to at least be familiar with some basic combinations to keep the pace engaging.

Additionally, since this project was developed by students as part of their course, I wanted the game to be enjoyable and engaging for core gamers, while still offering an experience that could be shown to casual players (such as the students’ family members) without being overwhelming.

To address these needs, I designed two distinct game modes: Sandbox and Challenge.

In this mode, players are given a space where they can freely experiment with elements. They have access to every type of machine available in the game and can use a dedicated menu to track which elements have already been discovered. This menu also provides hints, presented as flavor texts, about undiscovered elements.

Additionally, in this mode, it’s possible to “order” any element that has already been previously discovered, allowing players to focus on experimentation without the risk of losing progress.

In this mode, players can select one of the challenge maps available in the game, each divided into thematic biomes. Every map presents specific environmental challenges, with the core feature of each challenge being the presence of a time limit.

Each challenge provides a set of starting elements, placed throughout the map, and an objective element to create, all within a certain number of seconds.

The sets of objectives and starting elements were handcrafted and thoroughly tested. When creating these sets, I considered factors such as the number of steps required to create the target element, the types of machines needed, the frequency of ingredient appearances, and the time taken by the testing team to complete the tasks.

For this project, as with similar ones in the past, I aimed to make the production as modular as possible. Given the tight schedule, it was difficult to accurately estimate the amount of work that could realistically be completed.

Modularity was especially achieved in the level design: we could have developed just one biome and already have a fully functional game. From there, we organized incremental “sprints” to create additional biomes as the project progressed.

Regarding interactions and mechanics, some machines and specific behaviors for the more advanced biomes were not essential to the core gameplay. This allowed us to initially focus solely on the core mechanics.

Similarly, the development of different player skins and the customization of element crates through VFX and other minor adjustments were designed so that production could be halted at any time while still delivering a functional and coherent final product.

Now, I will present a brief breakdown of the main features of each map I designed, focusing on the gameplay feel I wanted to convey.

In this project, I had the opportunity for the first time to co-manage a larger team, growing from about 10-15 people to around 25. This required me to effectively manage the team’s production resources. Specifically, I had to dedicate time to drafting and explaining documents that provided clear guidelines on development and project organization, invest time in reviewing the work of the development team and other groups I was responsible for, report progress to my superiors, and still find time to work on designing new materials and assisting with architecture, IT, and development issues.

As a result, I significantly improved my producer skills, my ability to make smart design decisions, and my development skills.

Regarding the project’s production, I believe I could have successfully applied the Scrum methodology, which at the time I wasn’t very familiar with.
Additionally, a more experienced and formalized use of Git branching (perhaps aligned with the logic of individual features like in Git-Flow) would likely have been beneficial.

As for the product itself, I must acknowledge that it excellently met all the objectives we set. However, there are some changes that, in my opinion, would make it more interesting and coherent:

• The biomes are mainly connected by aesthetic traits. Although I later made an attempt to unify design choices within each area, I would have liked to think about this more thoroughly during the design phase to align each biome’s levels also in terms of gameplay.
  
  

• The last levels received limited playtesting since the final biome was created as a stretch goal. Unfortunately, this is quite noticeable in the last level, where obstacle spawns make the experience rather frustrating.
  
  

• Overall, I would have liked more time to observe players near the end of the process and integrate mechanics tailored to our specific gameplay, helping to differentiate it further from the reference games and make it more unique.