Witch’s

Brew

Type: Team

Role: Design lead, Level Designer, UX Designer

Length: 3.5 months, Ended december 2023

Publisher: DigiPen Institute of Technology

Game Overview

A first attempt at top down horror, this game made by five programmers and two main designers takes the player through a haunted house cursed by a witch. The goal of the player is to solve the antagonists’s puzzles in hopes of surviving the manor.

This single-player, non-linear, puzzle game was prototyped in Unity and began development in a custom engine.

The game never made it past the Unity prototype due to internal conflicts, but there was a starting place for the main gameplay loop.

My Modified Kenny.nl Tileset

Level

Iteration

Level Design is an iterative process. There were many changes that occured to the design throughout the 4 months I worked with this team. Because the custom engine was still being built, Some of the iteration was done in our Unity Prototype.

My first iteration fulfilled the base requirements of a fixed camera. It’s a singular room separated by walls and different furniture.

In the second iteration of the level, I wanted to emphasize exploration while maintaining the structure of the game despite the order the player completes the puzzles. This adjustment was made shortly after getting confirmation that the engine supported multiple levels.

Later, I laid out the rooms in Tiled to put into the engine. This is the first pass without the modified tileset.

In the next iteration, I added space for exploration as well as cobwebs, holes, tears, and goop to amplify the aged house, and unsettling forces. Felt empty due to a lack of furniture assets.

Due to a lack of time, responsibility as Design Lead, and team conflict this is the final design. The living room was iterated on to fill it out, give it a slightly grandiose feel, and create more space to run when the witch begins chasing the player. I would add shelves, potions, and Alters If I still had time.

Puzzle

Iteration

This was the most challenging part of the design. I’ve learned how complicated it is to balance difficulty and complexity. Designing for a game without knowing how to scope it in the beginning was also fairly. I ended up designing one puzzle that tested well, but didn’t end up making it into the cusom engine.

Hair

Plant

Key

The Original Plan was to scatter three ingredients throughout the level locked behind another puzzle like a push-pad puzzle. The player would then have to find important pieces in other rooms to solve each puzzle and obtain the main ingredient.

This led to mindless wondering and trial and error

We wanted our players to feel smart and capable. To accomplish this, we needed to design more intentional, thought provoking puzzles

To help guide the player, I created a Checklist UI next to the cauldron to communicate goals and help separate gameplay.

As a Result, players were able to understand What to put in the Pot without trying all items like books and shields.

Piano

Puzzle Design

To create a more intelectual puzzle requiring the player to learn about the environment and build the solution through existing information. We only had trial-and-error puzzles thus far so I designed a three-step, explorative, and memorization-based puzzle.

I started with a music-theory based note sheet. The player would find this note and play this sequence on the piano to unlock an ingredient.

While playtesting I found the lack of music theory understanding in players became an issue. The different colored notes matching the corresponding keys on the piano was my attempt to remedy this, but it ended up confusing players more.

To fix the confusion, I connected the notes mentioned on the staff to corresponding piano keys with dots and removed the color on the notes on the staff.

The use of a staff was simply a barrier to players who did not know how to read sheet music. Instead my design partner and i shifted to symbols.

After designing a page of different symbols, My partner designer, Cam Grey picked out his favorites and scattered them throughout the five rooms, placing two in each room. There was a pink and black symbol in every room.

This puzzle gave players aha-moments as they figured out the proper solution. Upon reflection, most players thought it was simple, yet they spent a long time pondering the note.

Documentation

After Pitching many ideas I had for different games, the team ultimately agreed on this thriller.

From talking with the team my 1st partner designer and I created a Comprehensive design document to follow

Playtesting

Over the duration of this four month project, I playtested eight times with 9 participants.

I learned how to collect observational notes and what information to emphasize when communicating data across the team .

The First playtest I conducted, I recorded a lot of information, some of which was unneccessary.

I was detailed in the notes I took, but I couldn’t keep up with the pace so i did not note everything.

it would be hard to find important information without skimming through the document in its entirety.

The last playtest I conducted on this game. I was a bit more precise in the information I recorded and included a summary at the top, making it easier to communicate the data to the rest of my team.

I was able to collect more information to get the full picture of how the player was percieving the game. Once I learned how to take notes, it became more fluid to make changes to the game.

Reflection

My technical capabilities developed rapidly over the course of this project. I spent about 16 hours a week on this project alone, but I had to split my attention amongst 4 other classes and a part-time job. With practice and research, I learned much more about puzzle design and how people perceive and therefore interact with the game space.

Beyond the game, I learned a lot as a design lead and team member. Since this was a school Project, the whole team was learning about the development process. I’ve also learned I value team dynamic over the product, as I lacked support on this team which led to isolation and demotivation. Since this project, I prioritize the people I work with and communicate as openly as possible, even if it takes extra time.