Emilie Simond - Game Designer
Shapeweaver
Game Designer - 3D - 4 months - Solo
One button mobile game designed during my Ubisoft Mentorship.
Play as an outcast shapeshifter demon trying to make their way out of Hell.
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Conceptualized the game and mechanics
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Balancing and prototype of the mechanics
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Game documentation (One Page, Pitch and Prototype Plan)
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Worldbuilding of the game
Iteration process
Since this was a personal project I really wanted to make something inspired my favorite genre, immersive sims.
Because of this I wanted to include several features in my game:
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Stealth mechanic
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Player choice
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Non-linear level
Shapeshifting mechanic
My favorite thing to design was without a doubt the different shapes since they are the one supporting the player choices and the non-linear level design.
My main goal was to create different playstyles through these shapes, by having forms that are more oriented toward combat, stealth or even exploration. I choose to have fungi and animals has a main inspiration for these demon shapes, this really helped refined and balance the different actions and attacks.
From a more narrative point of view, using these as inspiration was also a way to develop the world leaning into this reamagining of hell and especially of the nine circle of hell. You can see more here.
Design challenges
The limitation of the one button gameplay was an added challenge to this iteration process. To my surprise movement was my biggest challenge. Movement is going to be one of the main things the player will have to juggle while playing and the first two iterations where in my opinion either not relevant or over-complicated.
With the first iteration, movement was dependent on a dice, but movement was not random so having the dice felt irrelevant to the mechanic.
The second was overly complicated involving several taps to move only one tile.
Finally the third adapted the tile idea to make movement more fluid and simple.
