"A Colorful Escapade" is a 3D platform game inspired by "A Short Hike", "A Hat in Time" and "Mario Galaxy 2".
The story revolves around Amy and Sarah, who while playing tag discover a cave that takes them to the heart of the volcano in the middle of the island. A giant colored sphere is hidden in the volcano and Amy decides to touch it, which destroys the colored sphere and causes the color to disappear all around the island. Amy gets thrown out of the volcano and lands on a beach. She discovers that her sister is stuck in the volcano.
Amy and the player therefore aim to collect colored spheres all around the island, to bring color back to the island and save Sarah! The player's character emits color around him, which can trigger certain events like dead stumps turning into trees! All puzzles are designed around the idea of losing and regaining the ability to emit color.
The player emits color around him, which can trigger certain events like dead stumps growing to trees! All puzzles are designed around the ideas of losing and gaining the ability to emit colors, and throwing color around!
GAME DESIGN
LEVEL NARRATION
I was responsible for the game design of this project. I created a document for the narration of the levels. In this document, I detail each obstacle that the player will encounter and the difficulty they represent. I also associate each of the obstacles with a specific location on my level designs. By associating each obstacles to a place in my level plan, I was easily able to create a cohesive and interesting level design.
I also detailed the narration of the different puzzles present in the game in the same document.
TRELLO BOARD
I've had to create every mechanics in the game and create the direction of the game.
So to organize and direct my team, I created a Trello page that use the User Stories structure to seperate the work.
MECHANICS DESIGN & BREAKDOWN
I used labels to prioritize which mechanics were needed first. I detailed each design for the programmers so they could understand what I wanted. I also provided visual examples to clarify my concepts.
I used children User Stories which helped me organize the project from the start. It also helped me deconstruct each mechanics into smaller tasks for the programmers and the artists.
Trello attachments
Tasks
LEVEL DESIGN
I made documents to help visualized the level design at an eagle view (top down). I used the obstacles described and place it in this simple rendition of the world I was creating.
I also made the level using Synty's Island asset pack! I had to create the layout using the landscape tool of Unreal Engine.
I made sure that the obstacles I place were fit for our persona, which is around the age of 9 to 12 years old.
I also needed to make sure that my persona found the game visually engaging!
Conception of the Beach
Conception de la Forêt
Implémentation de la Plage
Implmentation of the Forest
GAMEPLAY PROGRAMATION
I made an entire character in c++ with the Unreal Engine component ''Character Movement''. I implemented a rope swinging system, a wall jumping system, a double jumping system and a running.system.
I made sure that every possibility of the player's character has a corresponding sound, VFX and animation.
PLAYTESTING
I partnered with the Saint-André school in Granby to test this game with a class of children aged 9 to 12 on June 19, 2024. I discovered the appreciation of my target audience for the game that I I created. The feedback is positive! However, several bugs and poor game optimization created a frustrating experience for my testers. However, I got lots of constructive feedback and a better understanding of how to do a good playtest!
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
A Colorful Escapade was a wonderful game development experience. Serving as the full creative director was deeply fulfilling, and seeing the musicians (Thomas Lachance), artists (Alex Filion), and programmers (Louis Monié and Hugo Mora) genuinely enjoy the project made me fall in love with teamwork and with working in the video game industry. I wish I could have taken the project further, but life got in the way. Still, I'm proud of the cute result.