Solo Game Project Bloomblebee

Below follows a write up of my design process when I made Bloomblebee

Goals and Limitations

• Must use the Unity game engine.
• Must be a 3D project.
• Playable deliverable with a clear start and finish.
• A five week deadline.
• It should be clear to the player what to do and where to go.
• Clear win and lose state 
  

Considerations and decisions 

I initially started to make a space shooter in the vein of Star Fox but after being introduced to the tend and befriend response as an alternative to fight or flight I changed direction of the game to be about a bumblebee in search for nectar.

This decision also made me scrap enemies I had planned and a timer that would score you on the level. I decided these elements would clash with the overall aesthetic I was going for.

I instead decided to go for a relaxing experience of exploration and discovery. This also made me want to remove my lose state and after a discussion with my mentor (read stakeholder) this was approved.

These decisions led me to focus more on level design and atmosphere since the mechanics alone would not be enough for a compelling experience. I decided to divide the level into ‘rooms’ that had a unique look to convey a sense of progress and exploration. Flowers were placed in key places that always pointed to the next ‘room’ to guide the player.

Since I wanted a relaxing forest environment I decided against using music in the game in favor of ambient nature sounds.

I decided on doing a tutorial level to teach the controls and goals of the game clearly but made it optional so that experienced player could skip it. 

Mechanics

The player controls a bumblebee in a 3d environment with the keyboard and controls the camera with the mouse. The player can also choose to use a gamepad.

The goal of the game is to explore the forest and collect nectar from flowers. When the players avatar approaches a nectar, a prompt will appear and the player can choose to drink the nectar. The nectar count is always displayed in the upper left corner for convenience.

When reaching the end of the level, the player is scored on how many nectar that they found and is also presented with information on how many total nectar was in the level.

Secret areas with a special kind of secret nectar are scattered in the level to encourage and reward exploration and give a feeling of discovery.

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Gravity Shift

Initial limitations and goals 

• Use a gravity shifting mechanic
• Be done in a few days
• Be made in the Fancade app using their visual scripting language 

Considerations and decisions 

Fancade uses a 3d voxel engine but since I was fairly certain I wanted to constrain the gravity shifting to two axes to make it easier to navigate I decided to go with a side facing orthographic camera. This also enabled me to use a pixel art style for the assets to speed up the workflow.

Initially the gravity shifting mechanic only worked in one direction since I wanted it to have a single input, thus making it easier to understand. However after early playtesting it became apparent that the players expected there to be a way to shift gravity both forward and backwards and became confused when it didn’t work so I changed the design to fit the players expectation. 

Mechanics

There are spikes to prevent the player from landing on certain areas to make it easier to construct interesting levels.

I added a block that falls in the same direction as the player as an obstacle the player needs to move in order to progress. I felt like I wanted to lean into the gravity shifting so a big heavy block felt natural.

There are also certain blocks that break when the player lands on them with sufficient force, again I wanted a mechanic that felt like it took advantage of the gravity shifting.

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Mini Game Design 

Initial limitations and goals

• No stressing elements like timers or point systems.
• Keep with the wholesome theme of the rest of the game.
• An alternative to fishing minigame. 

Considerations and decisions 

I started out with thinking about what we could do instead of fishing. Almost every game has a fishing minigame but it did not fit with the theme of this game (taking care of creatures).

I decided that I wanted a minigame involving flowers/plants since the player will be crafting remedies using herbal components. Completing a minigame would result in that the player received resources that could be used in medicine and/or quests.

We didn’t want timers or stress in the game because one of the core pillars was relaxing gameplay and a wholesome atmosphere.

Using pen and paper I brainstormed different mechanics that could be used. Initially I thought about using a spatial puzzle mechanic in the lines of match 3 but decided against it in favor of something less potentially frustrating and more relaxing.
Eventually I landed on a sorting mechanic. Sorting can feel calming and cathartic while doing it and usually leaves the player with a feeling of satisfaction and completeness when they are done. 

Mechanics

The player is presented with a 2d representation of a flower and is tasked with sorting the petals in order of hue. Below is an image of the three stages of the mini game, unsorted, being sorted and lastly completely sorted. 

Complexity can be added by using multiple rings of petals. After sorting each ring by hue the player needs to rotate the rings so that a petal from one ring is adjacent to a matching hue in the other ring. That way, the hue sorting continues over rings. Below is an image of a flower where the rings align correctly. 

Difficulty can be adjusted by changing the number of petals in each ring and by how much each hue differs from the previous. Maybe different flowers have different numbers of petals and rings.