Pre-Production
Research
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Researching how other games handle the detective genre.
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Researching how a detective's sixth sense could be handled and how it is handled in other games and movies.
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Research into general puzzle design.
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This helped us create the design pillars upon which we want to build our game.
Documentation
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I was in charge of the creation of feature breakdown documentation for the design and implementation part of the game.
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This documentation was used throughout pre-production and production to create a clear and insightful game vision throughout the development team.
Playable Prototype
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At the end of the pre-production phase, we aimed to have a prototype that would prove that the core gameplay loop is engaging, which turned out to be true.
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The prototype was built in Unreal Engine 4 due to a proper understanding of the engine among the team.
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I was in charge of developing the base, laying out and building core gameplay features designed to be created in the production phase.
Transition to Production
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After pre-production, our team size increased from 7 to 21
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We also needed to decide what content could be transferred over and what content needed reworking for the final product.
Excerpt from the research and feature breakdown.
A short gameplay reel showing off the core gameplay prototype
Production
Object Interaction System
I worked on the object interaction system that allows the player to inspect items for possible clues.
I made a base for each interactable object then expanded on that to help with functionality for each linked object and allow for the interactable to contain the information to be transferred to the notebook. This allowed for the design team to easily place interactable objects around the level
Object Interaction Examples
Text Interaction System
I worked on the text interaction system that allows the player to move text within the notebook to unlock new characters and solve the crime.
I made the system that takes a sentence and breaks it up into individual words that the player can use within the notebook and the verification system for the unlocking of characters and solving the crime. This allowed for the design team to easily change the interactable text in the game.
Text Interaction Examples
Puzzle Functionality
I worked on the implementation of the puzzles in the game for the player to progress through the scene of the crime.
I created the logic required for the puzzles to be solved and the functionality of the events that would be executed when these puzzles were completed. These implementations were based on the documentation created by the puzzle design team and required proper communication with the design team to be implemented properly.
Puzzle Examples