DUCKSIDE OF THE MOON | 2022
full cycle
16 weeks
23 devs
Game Design
Narrative Design
Level Design
Responsibilities
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Shaped the core design and led the design team
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Designed and blocked out the player base
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Established the narrative, characters, dialogue, etc.
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Designed and implemented the onboarding mission
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Led playtest sessions and analyzed relevant data
Unreal Engine 4
Blueprints
Released on Itch.io
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Game summary
Duckside of the Moon is a survival game about Doug, a talented duck astronaut, who gets sent up into space for a research expedition. On his journey, he gets sucked into a wormhole, and he is transported to a mysterious galaxy. His ship has reset, and he's stuck.
This brave duck must find resources to improve his gear and fix his spaceship, so that he can return home to his friends and family. While doing this, he must overcome dangerous environments as he realizes that he might not be the only one up here...
Game details
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Genre
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Player support
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Platforms
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Release date
GAME OVERVIEW
Research and planning
During the concept phase, I was tasked to plan a spaceship for our third-person duck character. The player base was set to be the players introduction to the game, a safe space, and a reflection of the player's progression through unlockable spaceship upgrades.
Responsibilities
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Researched the relationship between base upgrades and gameplay
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Researched hub world level design
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Established design rules and constraints for the base and it's ingredients
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Established paper designs of the base ingredients
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Sketched out variants of scalable top-down lay-outs
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Collected reference images to establish a fitting block-out shape language
One of the earlier sketch iterations for the base
The level ingredients in the base were planned out specifically so that the player follows a natural pathing without backtracking
The summary of my hub world design research
LEVEL DESIGN
Block-outs, modular kits, and level design ingredients
Once we had everything planned out, we moved onto the pre-production phase. For me, this meant creating the block-out in engine following the rules I had set for myself. I created a modular kit for the base and documented the pieces with their exact metrics. This way, artists could replace the pieces with the desired model.
Responsibilities
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Blocked out the base
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Created a modular kit for the base
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Created a modular kit document with metrics for artist usage
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Conducted playtests and analyzed the results
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Implemented level design ingredients with Blueprints
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moving doors, upgrades, air pockets, etc.
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One of the pages of the how-to document I made
Part of the modular kit document displaying the process and collaboration with the concept- and environment artists
Iteration process
Once we had any form of block-out, no matter how small, we play tested. In total, we went through 10+ iterations. Our key iterations were focused on spacing and improving the ease of pathing within the base.
Responsibilities
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Iterated on the block-out of the base
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Assisted in replacing the modular pieces with their newer versions
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Assisted in multiple lighting-passes
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Conducted playtests and analyzed the results
Final version of the centre of the base
Showcase video of the final base
Walk-through video showcasing major iterations
Onboarding
During the early stages of the project, it was noted that our target audience had trouble understanding the game. As the narrative designer, I took on the task to create an onboarding mission to teach the player about the mechanics, their extrinsic goals, and the game world.
I extended the narrative to include that the spaceship had been broken during the introduction cut-scene. This way, we could rationally walk the player through the mechanics in a fail-safe environment without breaking the illusion of the character being an experienced astronaut.
Responsibilities
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Designed and tweaked the onboarding mission
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Wrote the onboarding text and titles
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Conducted playtests and analyzed the results
Video walk-through of the onboarding mission
NARRATIVE DESIGN
Plot, characters, and dialogue
It was important to us to create a narrative to support our gameplay and help give us a greater direction in all aspects. The narrative did not have to be flashy or detailed, it needed to be simple and strong. Additionally, we wanted an NPC to make the world feel a bit more alive and wholesome.
Responsibilities
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Researched narrative design, character design, and dialogue
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Established the game's narrative
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Wrote and developed the NPC Cap'n Jerry, including dialogue
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Implemented dialogue using our in-house systems
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Wrote all item descriptions and titles in a theme-appropriate manner
Video of Doug interacting with Jerry
Item descriptions
Jerry's initial character concept