Snap N' Grap
ROLE
Designer
DESCRIPTION
A speedrun platformer mixed with a photography game. The player aim is to get through the level and take as many photos as possible for a higher score.
My Role
My role in this project was to develop levels and systems, gearing them towards speedrunning and comfort. I needed to blend the line by making the game exciting and fast while also still cute, and I worked closely with the rest of the team to make this vision.
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As Design Lead and Scrum Master, I was responsible for leading the group and also organising scrums and making sure the work followed Agile methodologies, organising everyone and making sure they were on top of their work.
Level Design Choices
Early on in the level design of Snap N' Grap, I wanted to make the level have a beginner route, which is the one which is most obvious to the player when they spawn in. However, there is also the possibility of using your grapple to grab off the beaten path and swing with great momentum forward, going for a riskier option but possibly getting a better time if they can pull it off.
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As time went on, and more components were added, it was interesting balancing these levels to gear toward the hazards we added, the different mechanics and keying up each level to work with the mechanics if they were changed or slightly tweaked - For example, if we changed the grapple distance, it was a matter of changing the distance between platforms so the player could easily react and traverse still.
Early on, I focused on different pathways and making sure gaps were crossable with the grapple hook.
In the end, the level took much more adjusting and needed more tweaks to make things easier to grab, with various different paths for the player.
Systems Design
In order to make our game different from the norm in this genre, it was important to make our movement unique - As such, we took the grapple hook route that other platformers have, but we also added another ability, "Reposition", which acts as a sort of mid-air readjustment to your momentum. You can use this to correct your path or to boost yourself a little when you need it.
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It was also important to add hazards, which I coded to make the player have a harder time getting around the level, and so it would mean that there was more player retention with more risk.
Tweaking the movement to feel nice was key - Something we did through adjusting the range of the grapple, adding a speed-up feature, and adding animations and audio.
Adding hazards was an early challenge for us, so as to make our game more like other platformers - As such, it was instrumental to make them fair and obvious to spot through sound cues, lighting or effects.