My Role - Sole Developer and Designer

• Conceptualised the main game idea and mechanics.

• Designed and developed the open-world environment.

• Designed various puzzles with back-tracking and skill-based multiple solutions.

• Wrote the entire code base, including a very robust save system.

• Designed/Developed the game's soundtrack and audio system.

Key Features -

• A mid-game power-up allowing the player to glide in the air briefly.

• Puzzle levels with increasing difficulty seamlessly integrated into the environment.

• An appropriate floaty controller for the Ufo, which also enables platforming shortcuts.

Design Highlights -

• Iterative design approach for the puzzles. Ideas are introduced slowly and one at a time before they build upon each other for more complex puzzles.

• Integration of puzzle design and open world. Some late puzzles require resources that can be fetched via backtracking, or the backtracking could be avoided by skilful platforming.

• Intuitive and directional level design, the Island is designed to guide the player's attention to the next objective naturally as they explore, without the need for map markers.

Learning Outcomes -

• I learned the importance of play-testing. The difficulty curve of the puzzles was not smooth before, and I was able to refine it much further by player feedback.

• Prioritising and planning. This was the first project I finished to its completion and left many features/puzzles for the sake of shipping the game.

• Learned the importance of a well-balanced colour palette and art style.