Exale
2D-Adventure Platformer Game
Traverse into the depths of the mysterious cave that emerged from an unnatural earthquake and find the source of its existence.
DIGIPEN GAMES AWARD 2020
Awarded for Best Sophomore Game 2020
Finalist Nomination
Awarded for Best UX Design 2020
Finalist Nomination
Production Process
Narrative Lore
World & Character
I would need to understand or finalize the concept of the character and the world he or she is going around in. In relation to gameplay, it further allows me to gauge the size and the geometry of the world the game needs to feel natural and not artifical.
Draft
Outline layout
As the world and character are complete, a simple draft of an environment layout will be sketched using Adobe Photoshop. It will help to demonstrate and test the mechanics and gameplay to see any issues in metrics as well as the approach of the world.
Objective
Game's Goal
After testing the draft and improving it, I will set up the game's objective and tie it to the game's world and space. This would help determine the duration of the game as well as the number of levels it needs.
Level Drafts
Navigation & Obstacles
When the game's ending and approach are finalized, level drafting can begin in terms of navigation, obstacles, and objectives in the world and be tested.
Narrative
With the lack of an artist in the team and little experience with art, we start with a basic and informative mood board setup to display our vision of our game.
Mood board
Game Gym
Playground to test metrics, camera resolution borders (Red box outline) and other simple obstacles.
Layout Draft
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Followed by reiterations and improvements.
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Level Drafts
After the finalization design on the game's ending, each level created must make sense in terms of navigation and linking to prevent confusion and resulting players to be lost.
Navigation
Tutorial Level
Layout & Reiterations
Hub Level (Objective)
Layout & Reiterations
Level 1 (Corals)
Layout & Reiterations
Level 2 (Vines)
Layout & Reiterations
Level 3Â (Crystals)
Layout & Reiterations
Level Contents
Content additions such as obstacles, enemies, puzzles, secrets, etc, are added and adjusted according to playtest feedback.
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After finalizing the contents, aesthetics, and visual feedback, sound cues are added to bring the world to life.
Obstacles and Secrets
Summary of My Experience
To craft and create the world from our visualization and ideation in 6 months is definitely a challenge. It also exposes me to using custom engines apart from commercial engines and experiencing the level of dependencies we had on Unity.
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However, we succeeded and accomplished together as a team in delivering our idealized game and it is something I am proud of.