Digipen Games Award 2018
Best 3D Visual Design, 1st Place
Finalist Most Innovative Design
Finalist Claude Comair Grand Prize for Game of the Year
Finalist Best User Interface
Finalist Most Innovative Design
Production
Team size
7
Production length: 8 months
Release date: 04-13-2018
Made with
Roles & contributions
Mechanics
Designer & scripter
UI/UX Designer
Puzzle adventure platformer
C.O.R.E
C.O.R.E is a 3D action stealth game which sends the player, a scientist, into an unknown world which exists at the core of the Earth. With the abilities to place traps and mines, players must find a way out and escape from the core.
UI/UX Designer
As the UI/UX Designer, I was in charge of designing the menus, HUD, and context sensitive interaction popups. I managed to create a UI that functioned well with good information control, layout, and visuals that reflected the game's story. I also helped create the control scheme for the menus and player controls.
Layouts & user flows
Creating menus and flows were some of my primary tasks. I came up with numerous versions, each of which I tested and iterated upon untill i managed to design a UI that succeeds in being both visually pleasing as well as intuitive to navigate and understand.
UI visual design - Appealing design & game lore
Apart from designing visually interesting visuals, I also worked together with our story writer and environment designer to design symbolic UI visuals which embodied the game's lore. With the connection between the UI and game lore established, I went on to create a proper style guide.
Feedback - Responsive UI for communicating information
Each action done by the player initiates a cause and reaction loop between the UI and the player. Using many design principles such as interaction and motion design in UI, I tried to design these cause and reaction loops to better communicate to the player what is happening, and to invoke the right responses from them.
Comfortable controls
Together with a team of designers we designed and test multiple control schemes, adjusting controls and button layouts till we eventually settled on scheme which was relatively easy to use and understand. I was also in -charge of creating the controls and navigation for the menus. Menu navigation was designed around how a player would hold and operate their controller/keyboard and mouse. This allowed users to navigate menus faster and easy by "reusing" the gripping and finger positions they have been accustomed to whiles controlling the playable character.
Mechanics Designer & Scripter
As one of the Designers, I helped in defining the player abilities and how they function. Having multiple player abilities. My role also saw me do some minor balancing of the player abilities and scripted the major of the player abilities and levels using Unity's C# scripting.
Developing the player abilities
Working together with other designers, we created player abilities that were unique, yet flexible. Different abilities used in the same scenario would result in different outcomes. To fully evaluate extent of each ability, we tested and observed how players used them.
Early version of progression & resource system
Early on, a progression system allowing players to upgrade their abilities was implemented. There were also concepts of adding a resource (sort of crafting) system. After going through tests and gather feedback, the two systems were scarped as they did not work well with the limited play abilities we had.
Prototyping early game concept & player abilities
In the early stages of development, we had multiple ideas about the game concept and gameplay, such as how each ability worked. I helped create an early prototype of the player abilities, making define some of the physics behind them to better usability and stability.
Scripting for level design iterations
My responsibilities also included me scripting the logic of a major of the puzzles and player abilities. Since those puzzles and player abilities would be used by level designers to design their puzzles and encounters, I ensured that the abilities and puzzles had enough functionalities to allow level designers to play around a lot of those mechanics.