Hello Darkness
game designer | tinybot
Project Information
Team Size | 5
Engine | Godot
Duration | 3 Days
Game Jam | Ludum Dare 57
Jam Theme | Depths
Summary
Hello Darkness is a first person arcade-survival game where you must pilot and repair a sinking submarine as you drift deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean.
Experience
Working on Hello Darkness was an agile, fast-paced experience, as is any short game jam. I took part in all aspects of development to some extent, helping the team and prioritizing tasks methodically.
As a game designer and level designer, I took on the responsibility for creating the submarine and ocean environment layout. I first made a 2D layout for the sub in Figma, which is a software I had recently picked up at BCIT and turns out works well for creating level layouts.
Afterwards I implemented my layout in engine with a blockout. We tested the blockout’s flow, then set dressed the submarine with various assets and our gameplay components as they were created.
I also created the ocean environment, which the player navigated by steering the submarine. Balancing this section required a lot of playtesting as the player couldn’t be at the wheel steering constantly, so obstacles needed to be balanced appropriately.
Impact
The overall impact of this project was in me returning to game development after my three month program at BCIT. Also using the new design skills from BCIT I learned in a game design context was very refreshing, such as using Figma to create a 2D layout, or apply some of the UX design practices when creating game mechanics.