Buried

Game Jam - 4 People Team - 3 Days

SUMMARY

Case Study

Throwing Seeds, Sunlight Ray and Growing Plants

The game's main mechanic, growing plants, was envisioned to create puzzles where the player would have to think and plan about how to traverse the environment efficiently, grow the plants needed, and then execute the platforming to actually progress in the game.

First, the player holds the Right Mouse Button to start aiming the equipped Seed. When the player releases the Right Mouse Button, the Seed is thrown. If the Seed hits a surface where it can grow, it sticks to it, and will need Sunlight to Grow.
Then, the player has to hold Left Mouse Button to shine Sunlight. If the Sunlight touches the Plant, it starts consuming the Player's Sunshine and Growing the Plant.
There are different Plants, and the player has to choose what Plant and where to grow it to complete the Puzzles and progress in the level.

Level Design

The Level Design for Buried was surprisingly complex. Balancing the difficulty of the puzzles and how much Maximum Sunshine the player would have in each section of the level was hard to do with the limited amount of playtesting we had. Making the level look and feel organic and immersive was also very challenging. When facing a situation where I could choose between getting the level to look good or playing good, I prioritized gameplay. The level comprises "Sections", or "Puzzles", inspired by Puzzle Platformers like Portal, where the player can clearly understand where they are and where they need to go, and the difficulty of the Puzzle is more about "How do I get there?" rather than "Where do I have to go?". The Level also had the task of telling the game's story and representing that the player is progressing, the player is going up and forward most of the time. The level is structured as a small tutorial level, where mechanics are introduced separately, and then the player has the chance to practice the mechanics together, mixing plants and traversing more complex areas.

Buried is a 3rd Person Puzzle Platformer designed and developed for the 2024 FIEA Game Jam, in a team of 4 people 3 game developers/designers, and 1 artist. In Buried, the player controls a personification of the Sun, and has to efficiently manage Sunlight to create and grow different kinds of Plants to traverse the environment and progress in the game.

My Work

Designed, prototyped, and implemented Throwing Seeds, Sunlight Ray, and Growing Plants mechanics.
Scripted and implemented the Plantform and Bouncy Leaf functionality.
Designed and created Level and Puzzles, and helped swap out Blockmesh assets for finalized Art assets and materials/textures.