CATHARIUM

ITCH.IO

Catharium is a narrative focused, first-person puzzle game. You play as Thomas Drewitt, a man who wakes up in a hotel unsure of how and why they are there. He is greeted by a Detective who is seeming to be investigating a murder. Compelled into helping the Detective, Thomas soon discovers all is not as it seems and he must solve puzzles to progress through the hotel and ultimately unveil the truth.

Developed in Unity.

SUMMARY OF CONTRIBUTIONS

As one of the designers on Catharium I was responsible for the design of puzzles. The aim for these puzzles was to be a fun and creative way to space out the narrative, and hide key items. For my own designs I wanted to create new puzzles to our game that were unique to the experience.

I was also responsible for the design and implementation of the final maze level. This area was created to be not only the final space of the game but also the final puzzle in a sense. So I aimed to design a space that was both challenging but also thematically in line with the games aesthetic and narrative.

Finally, I lead the team as a team lead/project manager for part of the development process. This included running sprint planning meetings, daily stand-ups, and sprint reviews/retrospectives. I employed Trello as a way to enable our Agile practice and served as a mediator in any team disputes or individual difficulties.

PUZZLE DESIGN

Much of the puzzle design in Catharium revolved around taking well known puzzles and injecting them with the swing aesthetic. By doing this we aimed to have intuitive puzzles that wouldn't require much guidance for the player, in turn we could include many one off puzzles that didn't require a tutorial.

One of my more original puzzles that did not make it in to the full release due to time constraints and unforeseen team members leaving the project, was the peg and string puzzle. My aim as before was to create a design that was easy to pick up and learn, whilst giving the player an experience unique to Catharium. The idea came from a peg board of keys as it served as a way of collecting the keys from behind the receptionist desk, taking inspiration from The Witness (Thekla, Inc. 2016).

LEVEL DESIGN

My responsibility for level design was to design and implement the final level of the game. My design intent for this level was to create a confusing liminal space that represented the depression stage of the five stages of grief.

Many of my initial drafts for this level gave an overarching theme that would assemble a larger picture once the level was complete. However, due to time constraints I had to adapt and shift gears to make the most of what was achievable. Making the puzzle revolve around finding numbers around the maze to exit.

TEAM LEAD

For the pre-production phase and in to later development I served as team lead/project manager. This meant ensuring our strict adherence to Agile practice and organising our use of Trello as a method of sprint planning. Also I served as a mediator in any team disputes and offered aid to solve any issues that might be blocking an individuals workflow. Lastly, I ran all team meetings which included: sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint review/retrospectives.

I was also responsible for the trailer. For which, I scripted and storyboarded, recorded and sampled audio and video, mixed audio in Adobe Audition, and finally assembled in Adobe Premiere Pro.