My Role

At Gunnar Games, a game developer that produced games for publishing by Big Fish Games, I worked on the design and development of a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game as a Jr. Game Designer.

I worked on different aspects of the overall product design, concept and the game design document. I focused on the narrative, world building, flow of gameplay and puzzle designs.

Narrrative

I first worked on putting together an outline, trying to focus on the major narrative beats and the story’s pacing. Special consideration was always taken to align with the guidelines and requirements from the publisher, as well as general recommendations based on research and existing products.

Once the general storyline was approved I worked on fleshing out the narrative and specific story beats. I created detailed and specific references and backstories for every location and character.

Game Flow and Environments

Once the story and characters were defined I proceeded to work on the gameplay and and environment design. The first step was to map out and define the scope of the game via an extensive flow chart that would represent all the screens and the actions that players would need to take within them.

To start, I created primitive sketches of the scenes to help me picture the location. I then wrote detailed descriptions of the main elements or landmarks in the scene which would then be used by the art team to create placeholder art.

Utilizing the placeholder art I would document the specific interaction requirements that would be needed in the scene. This included access points to unique puzzles and item placement.

I also designed bespoke puzzles that the player would encounter and need to solve. I created specific documentation to communicate the mechanics of the puzzles and exactly how users would interact with them to the development teams.