Puzzle Game Architect
Technical & Level Designer
Role:
Focus:
Engine:
Time Span:
Context:
Team Size:
Designer & Project Owner
Tech & Level Design
Unreal 5
2.5 Years + ongoing
Passion Project
2 Developers
About This Project
This ongoing passion project started as a master's thesis in level design and will one day ship.
Its puzzles, inspired by mathematical concepts, aim to appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers and puzzle enthusiasts.
Contents
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Goal #1: Complementary Activities
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Teaching Moment Example #2 ​
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Key Details
I am building an original game to satisfy my love for game development and passion for puzzles. It represents the culmination of my design and technical skills to date. I wrote 100's of gameplay scripts and put it all together in two playable worlds that make for a cohesive, 3-hour experience, one that's complete as a standalone demo and is currently being extended to a full-length, commercial game.
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Unbounded by any technical or skill-based constraints, I made extensive use of the UE Gameplay Framework, going between Blueprints and C++ as appropriate. With an eye for software architecture throughout, the tools and systems I built remain flexible, extensible, and sound.
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My intutive knack for designing puzzles, tempered by competitive analysis and statistical playtesting data, is making for a successful project that I continue building vigorously.​
Development Timeline
Months 1-2
Month 3
Months 4-8
Months 9-15
Months 16-18
Years 1½ - 2¼
Years 2¼ - Now
Inspiration & Planning
Proof of Concept: Puzzle Gameplay
Artwork, Theme, Secondary Gameplay
First Playable Milestone
Vertical Slice
Post-VS Big Picture Changes
Proof of Concept: Narrative Gameplay
Puzzle systems invented.
Essential game direction established.
Puzzle systems prototyped in engine.​
Breadth and sustainability of puzzles confirmed.
Complementary gameplay styles built & tested.​​
Thematic and artistic direction established.
Two worlds fully playable from start to finish.
Initial gameplay systems completed.
Addressed feedback from 1st playable playtests.
Refinements & visual polish.
Planned medium and large design adjustments.
Implemented editor tools; extended puzzle systems.
Designed experimental narrative gameplay systems.
Prototyping story content...
Design Goals
Design Goal #1: Complementary Gameplay Activities
Activities as a Palette
The game offers a handful of activity types.
Activity #1: Logic Puzzles
Kind: Quick logic puzzles,
15 sec - 2 min each.
Objective: Rearrange the petals to fall over the same color leaves.
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Reward: Level up gameplay abilities.
Activity #2: Spatial Puzzles
Kind: Spatial reasoning puzzles.
Objective: Transfer power through the cables from beginning to end.
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Reward: Earn pieces of the Door Puzzle at the end of each world.
Activity #3: Matching Puzzles
Kind: Aesthetically pleasing, pattern-matching.
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Objective: Inspect the artwork and arrange pieces correctly.
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Reward: Door opens to the next world.
Activity #4: Exploration
Kind: Optional, leisurely exploration activity.
Objective: Find hidden lotuses.
Reward: Earn decorative candles.
Rhythm and Pacing
All 4 activities are included in both worlds.
The levels present activities in a rhythm to satisfy player expectations while offering variety.
Design Goal #2: Puzzles Focused on Phenomena
Each World Has a Logic Theme
The puzzles all communicate deeper truths about cyclicality.
World 1: Switching Places
World 2: Rotations
World 3: Phase (planned)
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Puzzles Style Guide: Logical Axioms
All kinds of puzzles in the game follow precisely defined logical principles.
Teaching Moments
Example #1: The Rotating Gates Hallway
The Setup
The player must go through the hallway by aligning three gates.
The Key Player Insight
As long as the gates keep rotating concurrently, no path through will emerge.
The player needs to plan ahead and target a single gate at a time.
The Idea the Interaction Expresses
When two or more cycling objects rotate together, whether the contraption sweeps through all possible configurations depends on relatively prime numbers.
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Configurations will be missed when there are common factors in the number of turns it takes for cycling objects to return to their start positions.
Try it out ⤴︎
Example #2: Puzzle Sequence for Order-Independence
The Setup
The player must get each petal onto its matching leaf using a handful of cards.
The Key Player Insight
Order makes a difference in the resulting puzzle state for some pairs of cards and not others.
The Idea the Interaction Expresses
Commutativity (in math, the ability to reorder freely without changing the result) can hold between some pairs of cards, without holding for all pairs of cards.
Photo Gallery
