Deep Diving Simulator

I joined the team right after the prototyping phase of the project and once it moved to the full-blown production. During the course of the project I had a chance to design many of the features, systems and level for the game and then iterate on and maintain them throughout the whole production process. As with all of the projects I was involved in, I was the person responsible for UI implementation.

Here's an overview:

Prefab Design: Created and maintained reusable prefabs for interactive objects, collectibles, enemies, and hazards, ensuring easy iteration across levels.

Player Mechanics Tuning: Fine-tuned player movement, speed, and oxygen use to enhance the underwater exploration experience, adjusting settings per level.

UI/UX Design: Led UI implementation, working with artists and programmers to ensure smooth functionality and localization throughout the game.

Progression System: Designed a balanced player progression system with upgrades and new mechanics, catering to both casual players and completionists.

Level Design: Created and refined three full levels (Pirate's Nest, Silent Cove, Dragon's Den), balancing exploration, hazards, and challenges.

Level Maintenance and QA: Ensured all levels were polished, functional, and enjoyable, aligning mechanics with overall game design and player experience as DevQA.

Game Design

Video game screenshot showing an underwater scene near coral reef full of fish

I have set up and maintained majority of the prefabs objects used throughout various systems present in the game. One of my main responsibilities was the set-up of the easy to use and re-usable prefabs for most of the interactive objects in the game:

Collectible, Destructible and Interactive items

  • Setting up the prefab objects using the logic and script provided by the gameplay programmers.
  • Adjusting the objects and maintaining their variations across the different levels.
  • Working on the solutions based on the nested prefabs system to ensure easy iteration process and fast and efficient changes of the implementation.

    • Enemies and Hazards

  • Adding new variations of the enemies and hazards based on the examples provided by the gameplay programmers.

    • Balancing and fine-tuning the gameplay experience

  • Given the underlying themes of the game and it's focus on the underwater exploration and presenting the sense of being underwater, one of my responsibilities was the fine tuning of all the different aspects of the player character movement controller, such as general speed, speed of ascension and descension as well as other aspects such as oxygen use and sprinting abilities limits. Many of those settings were manually set for each level, to account for various details in level design of particular maps (most importantly vertical and horizontal sizes), to enhance the overall gaming experience.

    • UI/UX Design

    Video game screenshot showing UI view from a deep-sea robot camera

    I was involved throughout the whole implementation stage of the UI and UX design of the game. As the UI designer for the project, my main responsibilities were:

  • Implementing the flows and functionalities of the UI.
  • Requesting, adjusting and working with the art provided by the UI artist.
  • Implementing the solutions using the logic and scripts provided by the UI programmers.
  • Working with the localization files, organizing them and verifying their proper implementation throughout the game.

    • Game Balance

    Video game screenshot showing an underwater mining

    The game involved a player progression system to both incentivize and reward the players for their exploration. With each level the player would receive a different upgrade to the general abilities (more oxygen, better decompression handling, faster sprinting) or obtain new and interesting mechanics to be used on the later levels (dynamite, pickaxe, drone).

    My responsibility was to design the player progression system and work on the balancing of the level thresholds and experience values, based on the couple of factors:

  • The experience values for player actions (collecting items, destroying items, helping the wildlife).
  • The number of interactive elements found on the levels.
  • The number of tries the player will need to attempt to finish the level.
  • Fine-tuning between the casual playthrough, not focusing on clearing all game objectives, and completionists looking to max out the game achievements, so that all players find the game progression system fair and rewarding.

    • Level Design

    Video game screenshot showing a sunken underwater Japanese shrine

    One of the characteristic spots in the Dragon's Den level which I worked on was featured on the game's Steam page.

    I was involved in the full creation of three levels: Pirate's Nest, Silent Cove and Dragon's Den. For those levels, I've started working on them right from the initial block out all the way up to their final stages for the releasable status. My main focus as a level designer was to guide the players through the levels, providing them with challenges and interesting locations to explore. On each level, the player would encounter some dangers and hazards in the forms of sharks, sea urchins, fishing nets or strong water currents as well as had a moment of peaceful exploration and collecting sea shells and sunken treasures.

    In the final stages of the production I was the also responsible for the fine-tuning and upkeep of majority of the levels of the game. My main duties were mainly, but not limited to:

  • Ensuring that all functionalities are in order and the levels can be completed.
  • All mechanics and features are implemented properly and in-line with the game design.
  • The balance of the levels is maintained and the overall gameplay experience is enjoyable for any type of player.
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