Aug 2023 - Apr 2024
Astro Odyssey
Tools: Unity | Figma | PixilArt | Custom Engine | Tiled
Astro Odyssey is an adventure of a lone astronaut who awakens prematurely from their cryo-tank aboard a great flagship. An astroid collision has caused the ship's system to malfunction and activated AI enemies that are now rampant. Now, a race against time, you must find a way to fix it before the ship explodes an ensure your survival through this cold void of space.
Academic Project | Team of 8
Role: User Experience Designer | User Interface Designer | Level Designer
Background
This game is a 2D Top-Down Sci-Fi Shooter, that was a developed during my sophomore year on a 8-member team, "Arkham Games." I have experience with the sci-fi genre, where in the past, I was part of a team that worked on a 2D side-scrolling space shooter called Starflight Commando. Building on what I learned, I applied my skills to this project.
Project Goals
Team Collaboration
The goal is to establish a highly collaborative pipeline between 3 designers and 5 programmers, aligning vision, technical scope, and production priorities through clear communication, structured workflows, and frequent cross-discipline check ins.
We aimed to create a game using transparency, shared accountability, and rapid iteration, allowing us to solve problems efficiently and deliver a unified player experience.
Explore a UX/Level Design Pipeline
In this project, I focused on enhancing both UX and Level design through a structured pipeline, where I worked on user interface design and level development. I created UI menu prototypes to ensure smooth user navigation and contributed to the design of two rooms in Tiled. Throughout this process, I was able to refine my approach to creating user-centered designs and immersive levels that align with the project's goals, while constantly learning and iterating.
User Experience
Key & Locked Door Mechanics with Gun Pickups
I implemented a key and locked door mechanic in Unity, along with gun pickups, to demonstrate the intended functionality for our custom engine. The mechanic allows the player to collect keys to unlock doors and pick up guns, showcasing essential interactions that will be integrated into the final game engine.
User Interface Menus
I began designing wireframes using concept references to visualize the layout of key elements such as the HUD, Main Menu, Pause Menu, Credits Scene, Failure Screen, Win Screen, and Options Menu.
These early prototypes helped in refining the user flows and basic needs.
Which helped define what our final prototype UI Menus will look like. Using external assets and PixilArt for the Art for our start screen.
Early Prototype
Final Prototype
Inventory & Head-Up-Display
Collaborating with another UX designer, I created one inventory prototype in Unity, iterating through a total of 3 different designs based on extensive playtesting. The process involved testing various mechanics and collecting feedback, which guided the refinement of the inventory UI.
Through this approach, I collaborated with the team to finalize the first prototype, selecting it for its clarity and simplicity, especially as we were initially working with a single item/pickup system. This foundation will be built upon as we expand the inventory's functionality moving forward
Prototype 1
I created an initial inventory prototype with four slots, each featuring an 'X' indicator to signal that an item could be dropped (bottom middle). This was a conceptual design to establish the basic layout and functionality of the system.
Prototype 2
I removed the 'X' indicators based on player feedback, as the team decided that items intended for use would be automatically removed from the inventory, eliminating the need for manual item drops.
Prototype 3
Prototype 3 focused on a single item pickup, batteries (image to the right).
However, the key and locked door mechanic was removed to streamline gameplay, and since only one weapon was available, it was no longer necessary to display it. As a result, the final prototype for the inventory was simplified to a single main slot to represent the player's items.
Player Onboarding
I helped work on the navigation companion and focused on writing dialogue and creating animations specifically for tutorialization.
I tailored the dialogue to provide clear, contextual guidance to the player, ensuring each prompt was intuitive and aligned with the player's progress.
The animations were designed to visually emphasize key moments, enhancing the overall flow and making the tutorial feel more integrated and engaging within the game.
Dialogue Purpose:
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Guide Player
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Provide Contextual Clues
Navigation Companion
Level Design
I helped create two rooms in Tiled but through playtests, the design team agreed on reworking the rooms to ensue easier guidance and traversal for the player.
Which led to getting these rooms cut out.
Room 1
Room 2
What I Learned
Working on this team project provided me with stronger skills in both UX/UI and Level Design. I learned the importance of iterative design through prototyping, gathering feedback, and playtesting to refine the user experience.
By creating menus, HUD elements, and animating the UI in Unity, I honed my skills in prototyping and effectively direct technical implementations to align with my vision and the project.
Collaborating with my team has taught me how crucial communication and time management are in game development, especially ensuring all mechanics are functional, and the player is guided during gameplay.
These experiences have strengthened my ability to tackle complex design problems, and execute polished, player-friendly solutions.