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Ruby Ran Away From Home
GAMEPLAY
A traversal-puzzle game where as a vampire-girl you have to manipulate the environment to stay safe from the light while making your way back home.
ROLE & DUTIES
—Brainstorm and graybox puzzles, levels and transitions.
—Gather tester feedback on puzzles and implement.
—Program interactable elements and level-streaming.
—Program the narrative system: dialogue system, speech bubbles.
—Program the audiosystem and implement sound effects.
DESIGN CHALLENGES
Designing traversal puzzles around avoiding light means the shadows are the level. A key design task was finding a sun angle that looked good while keeping shadows readable, and stayed consistent across the seamless game world.
For interesting gameplay level settings and theming have to justify moving shadows. Realistic light-detection doesn't match player expectations. Players expect to be in safe if the characters feet are on a shadow.
Takeaway: playtesting truly is the designers best and worst friend.
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