cat looking out of the box
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Out of the Box is a light horror puzzle adventure game with a blend of 2D and 3D set in a strange animal test lab. Changed by the reality defying experiments you now try to sever the connection to the quantum world and to the box you were “created” in.


What I learned

  • What it really means to work with a team of Game Designers
  • Creating an immersive auditive experience and implementing sounds using Fmod
  • The importance of a theme and game design directionr
  • The power of verb based game design


My Responsibilities

System Design:
  • Core Mechanic
  • Feature Design
  • Prototyping
  • Playtesting
  • Movement Feeling
  • Documentation (One Page Designs)
    also:
  • Sound Design
  • Additional Coding
  • Engineer Sprint Planning


cat looking out of the box

System Design Examples

Using verb based design to find fitting mechanics, inspired by quantum mechanics.

Verb based Design
After many iterations we understood one part of the system had to be cut. Only one mechanic showed enough depth and potential, the other had to go.

Cutting the Swap Mechanics
This One Page design was iterated many times, as the game design changed. Goal is to provide an instant overview over the core game mechanics.

Early Onepager Core

Feature Design Examples

A broad set of possible features were designed, prototyped and tested. In the end we agreed on three of which only two made it to the final game.

Puzzle Blockout Tests
Doors.... I totally underestimated the amount of edge cases in working on doors. The amount of problems I had with the implementation of doors took more time than expected. In the end we did the most responsible thing.... we made the problems a feature and integraded it into the puzzle.

Doors....
I prototyped a surveillance camera, ready to be used in many different ways like: player camera, additional trigger for objects or even stealth mechanics. In the end it could just be used as a little gimmick, since we couldn't fit it into the game on time.
To improve the game feel and prevent player frustration we put a lot of work into the interaction of trigger button and boxes. We solved this through custom made mesh colliders on both objects as well as an automatic box stabilization.