Ufo Island is primarily a puzzle game inspired by games like Portal but set in an open-world. Setting the game in open world present with interesting opportunities and challenges.

I designed many puzzles with multiple solutions so that the player is more likely to succeed and they are encouraged to experiment with the world's physics and available resources. For instance, the above puzzle can be solved by using one block available nearby and a little platforming, and can also be solved by back-tracking and using a previously used block.

Making a puzzle game in an open-world setting opened up lots of opportunities but also many challenges. One big issue was that the player could just keep using one block to solve all puzzles. I handled this by designing the world in a way that some blocks needed to be left behind while having later puzzles use different color blocks and platforms. I also adjusted the difficulty of the puzzles based on play-testing.