Brief Summary

Gobloilings was originally created for a WPI-hosted game jam over the course of a week in a team of four. The theme was "Layers," and after a short session of brainstorming, we decided to create a puzzle game centered around strategically placing holes to push enemies into. The player would have knowledge of what sits on the layer they're on, as well as the layer below them, thus fitting the theme. 

We finished a very rough prototype by the end of the jam (only one level, no score system, and placeholder art,) yet we wound up placing second overall! We were still very excited about the idea, so we kept developing until we had a polished product to present at WPI's annual Showfest, an event hosted on campus where students can showcase their games. Our game featured procedural level generation, a score system, and an in-depth tutorial.

Our booth at Showfest had a live highscore leaderboard as well as prizes for anyone who could make it past level ten. Players were constantly rotating in and out, working together to strategize and better understand the game, while also fiercely competing for a spot on our leaderboard. The game was a success, and ran with no signifcant bugs across 50+ sessions.

What I Did

• Designed procedural level generation and implemented A* pathing for enemies.

• Designed and implemented the game UI.

• Used a Trello board for team coordination and task management.

• Designed the scoring system to ensure player experience goals.

• Gathered playtesting feeback and synthesized it into implementable solutions.

Skills

• Unity Engine & C#

• Playtesting Feedback

• UI Design

The Design Process

The Paper Prototype Proof of Concept

After our first meeting, where we landed on the idea of a turn-based strategy game about digging holes and pushing enemies down them, we immediately made a paper prototype using dice, markers, and notebooks. We were trying to ascertain a few things during this process:

1. How should the playable characters move around the grid? What limits are there to their movement?

2. Do enemies attack playable characters? How do players lose?

3. When should the player progress to the next layer / level?

4. Are players motivated to make conscious choices about where to place holes? 

5. Are players taking the lower layer into account when making decisions?

After several iterations, we had come up with the answer to most of these questions. The core decisions we made were:

1. Holes are permanent, and are obstacles for playable characters. This ensures the player thinks strategically instead of placing holes on every possible tile.

2. Strategizing requires some base-level knowledge, so we decided to make the enemies pathfind to oil barrels which players must protect, which makes enemy intentions clear and predictable. Losing enough oil barrels means game over. This also helped narrow down the scope, as we no longer had to worry about enemy combat.

3. Enemies only die if they fall on a stalagmite. Pushing enemies down to a regular tile means that you'll have more enemies to deal with when you move down to the next layer. This ensures strategy is necessary to progress in the game.

With these design choices set in concrete, we could begin prodction. We had most of these mechanics done by the end of the game jam, except for progressing between layers. As we finished implementing all of them, I took it upon myself to begin gathering playtesting data.

Playtesting and Iterating

I identified several problems while playtesting which confused and sometimes frustrated players, as well as unforeseen play styles which undermined our player experience goals. We did our best to address these before Showfest, and below is a list of the most impactful problems and the solutions we implemented.

1. Problem: Unclear signifiers regarding layers.

Players were often confused about what sat below a tile, on the bottom layer. This lack of clear information kept them from making strategical decisions.

Solutions:

• Implemented toggleable warning tiles, which display what sits on the layer below.

• Added a clone of the selection icon on the bottom layer, allowing players to see which top tiles correpond with which bottom tiles.

• Toggleable transparency for the top layer, as well as automatic toggling for when enemies fall down a hole, giving players clear and immediate feedback on their actions.

What I Learned

This project showed me the importance of brainstorming and problem-solving in groups, gathering playtesting feedback from a variety of players, and sticking to player experience goals. Without all of these, I am certain Gobloilings wouldn't have been as fun, unique, and satisfyingly complex to play.

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