Keeper of Time: Age of Fire

Platform: PC (Downloadable) 

Engine: Unity

Team Size: 20

Project Duration: 20 Weeks (3 months preproduction)

Playtime: 25-30 minutes 

Build: itch.io

The first design pillar of the game was "Flow Like Water"- every mechanic that involves movement must be in service of the constant, frictionless movement of the player.

The three of us in the design team went through many different ideas for the main mechanic of fireball. Some involved more complex inputs than others, but in the end, the simplest one prevailed- a third jump that sets things on fire. 

Heavily inspired by Mario's spin in the Super Mario Galaxy titles, fireball became a multi-purpose mechanic: its simplicity, easy-to-understand affordance, and close relation to movement systems made traversal fun.

First, and eventually the final, concept sketch of the fireball. Turns out more mechanical complexity was the opposite of what we needed- simplest was truly the best.

The tribal village section was originally designed with environmental storytelling and cultural representation in mind. I was mainly focused on creating a space where people could actually live: farmlands, play areas, and appropriately scaled huts were all signs of those efforts. 

I also tried to research ancient Hawai'ian land division (ahupua'a) and architecture, like land markers and fish ponds, to faithfully represent a living space. 

This, however, was a considerable departure from the team lead's design vision of an explorable, platforming level. Though this initially was a source of some conflict, we combined our ideas: in the end, most of the architectural set-dressing elements and the overall layout (including the ahupua'a) remained while the level layout changed to be more focused on platforming.   

My version of the village vs. the final version of the village. The general layout was kept, but the overall structure was overhauled to focus on platforming.

This employed 2 platforms looping around a square track. This was largely due to limits on tech- resetting platforms upon arrival and death was not in there yet.

• Waiting for platforms is boring and violated the core game pillar ("Flow Like Water")

• Two different vertical sections, seems redundant

With the tech limitation of resetting platforms solved, I iterated on the design based on playtesting feedback.

• Incomplete collectible placement and no "sidetrack" shortcuts- lacks encouragement of risk, too linear 

• Inconsistent platform speeds can confuse the player and making timed jumps more difficult

• Obstacles that block the moving platforms are too repetitive and monotone

One more playtest by the team lead and the general layout of the level was set- now was the time for polish and final adjustments.

• Collectibles now encourage player to move around constantly and take risks to collect all collectibles- much more dynamic

• Consistent platform speeds make movement patterns more recognizable

• Obstacles and collectible placements now leaves challenge up to players, dynamically adjusting difficulty and focusing on player agency

This was my biggest and longest project to date and a labor of love by 20 people over the course of almost 9 months. I am so proud of the entire team and especially of Daniel, the team lead who was in every single meeting for all 9 months and guided a team from beginner projects to a senior capstone.

+First real opportunity to work with other designers in a large team

+Plenty of time to develop tools made iteration time much shorter, allowing me to focus much easily on player experience 

+Learned a lot about effective leadership and communication- both as an observer in a big group and as the design vision holder for the team at large

-Big adjustments in scope halfway through limited the number of mechanics to play around with- though this forced us to think and be creative with limitations

-Some conflict with the team lead regarding vision- this could have been easily avoided

Group pic of our team, Bellchime Studios!