Group size: 2
Game engine: Unity
Over the Edge is a systemic design proof of concept my teammate and I created in 2021.
Players play as Hope, a lost girl trapped in a world of hallucination fabricated by her fears. The project features gameplay by pushing boxes to jump over obstacles, hiding in lockers to avoid the monster, as well as opening windows; a source of bright light to stun the monster.
The objective of this project was to showcase a game system where the player, enemy, environment and objects can interact and react to one another in a fresh and unique manner.
My roles: Lead Designer, Visual Effects & Environment Artist
As the lead designer, I had designed the game system to be based on 2 components: weather and sounds. The weathers will feature different mechanics that players can learn and use to their advantage. Sounds can be created by entities in the game, which serve as a manner of interaction between the player, enemy, and various objects.
With the systems in place, my job was to create artwork for the various weathers as seen in the game environment. Coupled with custom made visual effects such as the weather elements, monster attacks, lighting and animations, I sought to create a convincing and immersive world to house the system I had built with my teammate.
Key Takeaways
I had a great time working on this project with my teammate and learnt that simple elements can incorporated into a game such that gameplay becomes meaningful and varied. While weather in games can be seen widely as an aesthetic addition, this project had taught me that we can always go deeper as designers to create a system that reacts and responds differently to player input, as well as the conditions being presented at any given moment.
Systemic illustration of the game's Gaia system (weather system)
Weathers affect all game objects including the player and monster, while each entity is capable of interacting with, reacting to, as well as creating sounds.
The Gaia system was created with 2 primary features: weather and sound.
