Summary:

A prototype created for the Dare to be Digital competition 2016. Glaze is a relaxing 2.5D exploration game in which the player controls a crystalline dragon creature on a journey of discovery as they wander around a world of vibrant, low-poly environments.

Tasks and responsibilities: 

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• Focusing on the player experience within the gameworld:

  •  Structuring gameplay encounters to allow players to intuitively navigate through the world, including  planning the layout of the environment. 

  •  Planning out in detail player pathing, specifically how users could be guided to to enable a complete   playthrough in the limited time they would be allocated, without making them feel funnelled.

  •  Maintaining 'game feel' by repeatedly testing how the character moved and interacted with the world,  subsequently making sure that the gameplay complimented this.

• Working closely alongside a co-designer & multidisciplinary team, maintaining effective channels of communication.  (This was essential due to our limited time-frame)

• Rapid prototyping of mechanics & implementation of assets into engine as part of an iterative pipeline.

• Creation of Basic 3D art assets.

• Creation & maintenance of extensive design documentation.

• World building from the ground up; white-boxing to get a feel for scale and scope before slowly replacing those assets with ones produced by the art team.

About the Game:

The Glaze prototype was developed over an 8 week period by Puny Astronaut, a team of 8 4th year students studying at Abertay University, Dundee. After demonstrating the game to industry professionals and members of the public at Dare to be Digital, the game picked up the Channel 4 award allowing it's continued development under a new name, Skye.

Gameplay consists of exploring a world contained in a glass terrarium, populated by sections of farm & village filled countryside; while helping the friendly denizens with their problems in the ultimate goal of repairing their dying grand tree.

The environment is filled with interactable toys for players to engage with that exist purely as tools of relaxation, there to be played with. Vines of glass are strummed softly as you glide past them, piano keys light up as you pass, while windmills and waterwheels will begin to turn as the character flies around them. 
All of this exists to enable players to relax, tune out the noise around them, and explore the world of Glaze at their leisure.

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