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Crystal shop is a shop simulator where the player must create different crystals for customers by playing 4 different quick minigames.
Crystal Shop was produced in the 72 hour Mini Jam 220. I was responsible for the initial Game Ideation, Gameplay Design and assisting with Technical Implementation; My primary focus for this project was design.
Role
Gameplay Designer, Game Ideation & Technical Implementation
Project Length
3 Days
Team Size
4
Engine
Unreal Engine 5.6
Game Ideation
Game Ideation
The first step of the Game Jam was to create a few initial ideas with my group, fitting within the jam's theme of Crystal. Mini Jam featured a limitation that would be revealed at beginning of the jam.
Our team thought that running a scam crystal shop would be a fun game concept; so I created a few different design concepts. I decided that my favourite game loop for our game was customers walking up to a counter, ordering a crystal and players racing against a timer to create said crystal by playing different minigames. The initial idea took inspiration from classic "papa's pizzeria" and would be formatted similar to "papers please" where the screen would be split in two: one for the shop for the player to walk around and interact, and the other for the minigame. Quick diagram I created on the following picture to communicate idea to my team.
After some scope consideration, I decided that the game would run smoother and would be more feasible within scope if the player only served one customer at a time and display each minigame one-by-one on the screen. This also meant redefining the player's challenge, which I decided should be Quick Time Events and each minigame becoming quicker with each customer. This gameplay loop worked much better, giving further valuable experience in rapid game ideation and scope management.
Gameplay Design & Technical Implementation
Gameplay Design & Technical Implementation
During development my primary focus was Game Feel, Minigame Design and Balancing through Playtesting. I designed and iterated on the different minigames ensuring that each iteration felt responsive & satisfying to player whilst keeping them simple & intuitive enough to understand immediately.
I worked alongside the programmers of my team to turn designs into functional mechanics, helping to implement and adjust systems as the game developed. I adjusted system values and tweaked how systems worked to ensure that the game fit within the GDD.
I communicated the trajectory of the games increasing difficulty speed
Added animations to widgets to feel satisfying e.g. screen shake on the sculpt minigame
Implemented additional 2d elements to add game feel e.g. smoke appearing around the crystal hammer
Adjusted game pacing during the minigames e.g. packaging minigame holding success for longer before customer walks away
Communication through 2d widgets e.g. lives & anger meter
Implemented different systems e.g. customers, anger timer and colour minigame
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