The Fading Dark (2013)
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Personal Project | International Game Concept Challenge 2013 submission | PC | Unity
Project description The Fading Dark is platformer running game where the player keeps constantly changing between the dark and light worlds. Some platforms are materialised in one world, and others are only accessible on the other one. As such, the gameplay relies on this world-switching mechanic. The game is scoring based. The player can jump, attack and switch worlds. The project’s purpose was to work on a free-to-play mobile game which needed to be “Easy to play, hard to master”. As for controls, a tap on the left side or bottom side of the screen makes the character jump, a tap on the right side of the screen makes the character attacks with his sword and a slide up or down changes between worlds. A quick shake alternative option for world-switching is available to the players if they wish to activate it. This project was realised in four days for the International Game Concept Challenge. The concept had to be presented to a jury of game professionals, including key people from h.a.n.d. and From Software. The team We were five third-year students on the project: one artist and two programmers from the Trident School of Information Technology of Nagoya, and one programmer from Nanyang Polytechnic of Singapore. My role As the only Game Designer on the project, I assumed the role of Project Manager. With the help from English to Japanese translators, I was able to freely communicate with the team and delegate tasks, manage the schedule and the deadlines. On the design aspect, I wrote all the documentation, worked on the game design with the Nanyang Polytechnic programmer and prepared the oral presentation. What I learned
What I would have improved Trying to work with people who didn’t speak the same language as me was a great learning experience. However, this posed several problems regarding communication. For example, brainstorming sessions took a very long time, and expressing one’s thoughts and opinions was complicated. Also, adapting to the game development process wasn’t easy. All in all, this project was a difficult project to work on because of these reasons, and if I had previous experience in the domain development would have been faster and more streamlined. Also, the prototype of the game didn’t quite represent the concept, and I couldn’t get a hand on the Unity exe. |
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