SHAPE
An interactive story game
ABOUT THE GAME
Shape is an interactive story game with puzzles for player to solve.
The player will follow the life of a triangle living in a world of squares, exploring its inner world and looking for its shapes as it investigates its past to discover who it is. Each shape you find out helps you understand the life of the triangle, allowing you to feel the entanglement, bewilderment, and dread of being thrown from the "ordinary."
ROLE: Game Designer, Level Designer,
Art Designer, Developer
LANGUAGES: C#
PLATFORMS: Unity, Photoshop
TEAM SIZE: 1
TIME FRAME: 6 months
Responsibilities:
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Designed and developed gameplay, levels and narrative for immersive gameplay using C#, Unity and Photoshop
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Conducted testing of mood boards and prototypes to improve game features, drawing insights from 6 playtests, meeting deadlines to publish game on itch.io
INSPIRATIONS
I was inspired by the ancient Chinese puzzle named Tangram, which included seven geometric dissections and separated from a square. The seemingly uneven shapes mirror people's different identities, and the answer can only be discovered by embracing ourselves (without cutting the shapes).
The Chinese puzzle named Tangram used in the game is shown in the figure below.
DEVELOPING THE GAME
Story
The game is based on three act structures.
Puzzles
Emotion curve
Characters
Concept art
The player aims to explore fragments and arrange them together into a complete form. As player choose to cut shapes to solve the puzzle, they're transported into stories in which the protagonist is compelled to be changed moment.
Here are some of my approaches to emotional experiences.
EMOTION
At this stage in the game, the triangle distinguishes itself from others. This vignette portrays the sensation of being afraid and lonely.
INTERACTION DESIGN
The Player's dominance over speed and vision is steadily eroded during the game.
TESTING THE GAME
Pre-Production playtest
I aimed to create a sense of isolation for the players, making them feel like a "stranger" in society. To achieve this, I drew inspiration from games such as 'What Remains of Edith Finch' and 'Florence,' and integrated performative interactions that would deepen players' empathy for the protagonist
This phase lasted 4 months. From playtesting different prototypes, I gradually learned what I actually can do and want to achieve in this game.
Beta playtest
When I hit the beta milestone, this game was content complete and without major bugs. I invited six people for this playtest with emotional curve. From the Beta playtest, I learned that there were some aspects of the game that did not meet expectations：
Emotional curve
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Four players felt their in-game choices lacked autonomy. This resulted in a lack of guilt feelings regarding their choices. This was mainly because they didn't connect the pages to solve the puzzle and experience the stories in the first one or two narratives.
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Players lacked sufficient information about the game world in the early stage. And only after the first level did they become aware of the background story. This left them feeling somewhat lost during the tutorial and first level.
I redesigned it in two ways:
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Redesigned the interactions and visuals of the puzzle page to make it more relevant to the rest of the pages. For example, for the interaction, changed the mouse control to keyboard control like the other pages; for the visual aspect, changed the all-black background to a scene with objects like the other pages, and added more same visual effects.
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Added more text and visual hints in the initial tutorial level.
REFLECTION
Having an idea come into shape is fascinating. The design is close to what I had pictured and wanted to deliver, apart from details that had to be adjusted in the process of creating. This is my first independent experience of developing a complete game, from conceptualization, design, and development to the playtesting process. I invited six people to participate in the playtest.
Observing how people approached and interacted with the game provided valuable insights and made me reconsider elements that I hadn't previously considered. I have gained a lot from this experience.
NEXT PROJECT
Stargazer
