September 2021 - March 2022
Play Time
Horror Platformer
Description
Play Time is a horror puzzle platformer I helped develop as my Capstone Project at UCI. Play as Lemon, a doll stuck in a toy chest on a mission to find his best friend Orange, a raggedy stuffed animal. Play Time was in development from October 2021 to March 2022. Over two trimesters we put together a demo for the beginner level, where Lemon (pictured below) must escape from his toy chest prison, all while avoiding enemies and solving puzzles.
Gameplay Screenshots
Process
We first came up with a concept for the game. I had suggested an idea for a platformer where the character is small, having to navigate a large environment. We had built two grey-box levels, one where you play as Lemon (left top), whose mechanics and movement depend more on hiding, avoiding enemies, and jumping on platforms, and the other where you play as Orange (left bottom), whose mechanics involve fighting and pushing/pulling heavy objects. Unfortunately, due to my team having trouble with the push/pull mechanics and the overall scope of the project, we decided to cut Orange’s level, focusing instead solely on Lemon as the player character.
Throughout the first trimester, I focused on playtesting and tweaking Lemon’s movement. I knew it was important to have the character be easy and feel good to control. I also helped design the puzzles and obstacles in the game, as well as the arrangement of the level.
During the second trimester, we focused more on polishing the level and removing bugs. I designed the enemy UI and focused on the texture and animation, as well as making sure that the look of the game stayed consistent with the original concept.
