Moon Tide
Prototype Goal: To develop, iterate upon, and refine my level design skills through creation, play testing, and user feedback.
There was something in me that wanted to get feedback on my designs when it came to creating levels/scenarios, because I knew how to make a game, but was worried my design skills were falling behind. So, I put a time constraint on myself of two weeks to design and develop a fully interactible scene, with puzzles, flow, and general aesthetic consistency.
I thought long about the flow and intellectual challenge of the puzzles, along with the objects being interacted with making sense in that environment. The aesthetic I chose was that of a horrific, ethereal, pool-side scene. Some puzzle elements (which gated progression) included moving a net to unjam an automatic pool cover, connecting hoses to a pool cleaning robot, and using pool water to lift a key out of an umbrella holder.
I ended up finishing this prototype and got good feedback on it.
I also created what I thought was a pretty cool effect. I used an orthographic camera, rendered that to the texture of a plane, placed it inside and parented it to a twisting pool ring buoy. By clearing the sky box from the camera's rendering, you get an interesting sea-sick effect and depth-detection trick where your perspective changes what is displayed.
(best in fullscreen)