DAEDALUS

ITCH.IO

Unseeing and defenceless, you awaken in a labyrinth. Alone with no one but your deafening voices to guide you, you’re hounded by a relentless horror. Feel along the walls of your prison, work your way through its puzzles, and avoid the creeping dread. Perhaps you will find some relief from the labyrinth, if you don’t lose yourself to it completely.

Developed in Unity.

SUMMARY OF CONTRIBUTIONS

As one of the three designers on Daedalus I undertook a wide variety of challenges throughout the games development. The first of which was the level design of the final maze. This process include firstly sketching, and then blocking out in Unity. Without an artist there was no way to set dress these levels so the design of them was crucial.

I was also responsible for the UI/UX design of Daedalus, for which I drafted some simple concepts that I felt would be diegetic and easily recognisable to the player. After this I worked alongside our programmer to implement these systems.

Lastly as a designer, I was responsible for conceptualising and designing our core mechanics. With the short amount of time we had to develop Daedalus, I felt time was better spent on brief single page design documents that could be quickly consumed and discussed by the team. Through this system I designed the pulsing game mechanic and the enemy visualiser.

I also served as a team lead/project manager throughout 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.

LEVEL DESIGN

Designing the final level for Daedalus followed the typical process of sketch into blockout, however , without an artist the blockout would serve as the final build as well. With the design being so crucial in this process my aim was to give the player a unique experience in each level, with the final level serving as both the final challenge and the narrative conclusion.

The final puzzle involved taking the black background and completely changing it's colour, still making use of our core blindness mechanic. These colours tied in as both a mechanic that the player needed to find all the colour changing switches, but also narratively each colour represented an emotion that would change the mood of the narrators.

UI/UX DESIGN

The design of the UI remained fairly stripped down throughout development, serving only as what was functionally required. I wanted to create symbols that were easily recognisable by the player, and didn't require tutorialisation, as long as the player knew the controls everything else should be intuitive.

MECHANICS DESIGN

Throughout the development process of Daedalus I employed a streamlined design by iteration process when it came to mechanics. Instead of making an overarching GDD, I made several smaller documents each tackling individual issues and then giving potential solutions. I would take these documents to team meetings and decide on what we liked before developing further

TEAM LEAD

Throughout the development process I served as both the lead designer and 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, worked alongside our sound designer to make a track, recorded gameplay, and finally assembled in Adobe Premiere Pro.