Download:

https://victoria-grunberg.itch.io/yule

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Fact sheet: 

• Vertical slice for a narrative platformer adventure game.

• Genre: fantasy, mystery, slice of life.

• Audience: young adults.

• Platform: PC.

• Team: 3 members + 1 external sound designer, +1 external artist.

• Received competitive fund by the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture.

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For the development of this project I fulfilled several roles, each one with their own set of objectives, challenges and deadlines. This required a continuous communication with the rest of the team, and a lot of organization on my part.

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​Design process:

​As a game designer I was responsible for shaping the player's journey from start to finish. The initial phase involved many brainstorming sessions and conceptualizing the game's core themes around coming of age and personal growth in a fantasy setting. Since we aimed to make a platformer adventure, I researched into similar games already on the market, and collected information on common points, and aspects that make these types of games engaging and special. I decided to design simple and intuitive mechanics commonly found in many platformer games that the player would find easy and quick to pick up.

 

An original aspect is the use of "hope" as a measure that affects the player's experience and journey. Depending on lines of dialogue the player chooses during conversations with other characters, the answers the player receives can either increase or decrease Nora's level of hope. This in turn affects her mental health, which prevents the player from unlocking certain actions or dialogue choices. This feature acts as a representation of Nora's emotional state and directly influences gameplay, because choosing negative dialogue options too many times can block the player's progress temporarily. This mechanic ties closely to the game's narrative, and serves the purpose of encouraging players to engage thoughtfully with the story and characters to create a deeper emotional connection to Nora's journey.

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One of my primary responsibilities was designing the game's levels. I focused on creating diverse environments within the forest, each with unique elements and characters to interact with, enemies to encounter, and tasks to complete. The goal was to ensure that each location was not only visually distinct but also necesary places for the player to discover in order to keep moving the story forward.

 

Narrative process: 

Creating an immersive world was a key component to develop our narrative. I aimed to create a setting that was not only visually beautiful and enchanting but also deeply intertwined with the story and the characters' emotional journeys. The Frozen Realm serves as a metaphor for the characters' doubts and distress. People who are feeling lost in life become physically lost in the forest, and eventualy they end up loosing something of themselves that blocks them from leaving. For Nora, the longer she stays in the forest the more she loses her hope. ​​This worldbuilding effort was essential in making the game an immersive and engaging experience for players, encouraging exploration.

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I designed Nora as a very anxious yet courageous young woman, who just graduated university but has no plans or dreams about her future. She feels lost, and is not sure about what she wants out of life. My goal was to give Nora personality traits so young adults could feel identified with her journey, but still allow her to be lightly shaped by players' decisions. One of my challenges was in creating NPCs with original background stories and troubles, so they would also have reasons to be stuck in the Frozen Realm, but in a way that wouldn't feel too repetitive with Nora's story.

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Very early on in the development process, once I developed the characters and worldbuilding elements, I mapped the plot using Twine to figure out which choices the player could make, and where those choices would lead. As I expanded on the branching narrative, I realized that I needed to decide which pieces of information were crucial for the player to receive during the game. The challenge was in providing this information in all the different paths, but in unique ways so the dialogue options wouldn't feel monotonous.

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