Project K.U.B

Project K.U.B

---

Details

Role: Game Designer, Level Designer, System Designer, Programmer

Engine: Unreal Engine 4
​
Development time: ​2020 - ongoing
​
​Team: 2 persons

Contributions:​
• Game Design
• Level Design
• ​System Design/Implementation

Gameplay Trailer

Project K.U.B is a first person puzzle platformer with match three mechanics. Solve puzzles by using the classic match three mechanic, but now in three dimensions. Build stairs and bridges, bring down walls, create elavators and much more. All by using this new take on the match three mechanic.

---

Design Process

Image showing game loop
​Enter new area: Each puzzle will be self contained within a room or some kind of space
Locate goal: When entering an area, the player has to locate the goal (doors, glowing boarders)
Solve Puzzle: when having located the goal the player must solve the puzzle to get there

Design Pillars
• No Death
• Slow Paced
• ​One Mechanic to Rule Them All

Ideation

3D Match Three Puzzler​
We liked the idea of having a match three mechanic in 3D space and when talking about making "Portal-like" puzzles with it, we reached a sweetspot.
​
This would allow us to:
• ​use match three without any urgency making the 3D aspect too complicated

• let the player build thier own tools to solve puzzles, using the match three mechanic
​
• keep the satisfaction of boxes falling in a grid

We added the platforming element to introduce some dynamics to the gameplay, instead of constantly solving puzzles.

Drawing Board
We started with discussing what gameplay ​we could create with boxes falling in a grid. These are some concepts we scrapped:
​
• Avoid falling boxes while climbing up as high as possible
​
• Two players begin at the opposite side and has to get to the middle of the level, using the match three mechanic to get there

• Candy Crush 3D

​• Tetris 3D​

Where it Began
Project K.U.B started with a session playing around in UE4, that resulted in boxes falling in a grid. The pure satisfaction of it inspired me to create something with it.

​I showed it to a class mate (Theo Tolstoy) and asked "what can we do with this?", and thats when it started.

<Image of original Cube Dropper>

Mechanics

Whats a Good Mechanic?
• When designing new features we made sure all of them worked in conjunction with the core mechanic.

​• Any major mechanic separating from the core, would not be allowed in the game. 

• For every mechanic idea, we had a jam session where we tried to design  different puzzles with it, to see if it had enough depth.
​​
​• If a mechnic was too one dimensional, it had to be cut.

Solving Problems in a Good Way
• The Resetter was initially thought of as a safety, if the player failed to solve a box constellation.

• To not make it excist only to solve a problem, we took the oppertunity to create even more gameplay with it.

• Standing on the puzzle while resetting will elevate you ontop of the puzzle.

• One resetter can be connected to multiple constellations to add complexity.

• Some box constellations need to be first solved and then reset in order to progress.

Communication
​​

Level Design
Level 3

Whats a Tutorial?
• My level design approach has been that the whole game should be a tutorial.

• Every level should have the player learn something new.

• ​In Level 3 I wanted to teach the concept of having one Resetter connected to multiple box constellations.

Puzzle at First Sight
• ​I want to present the goal of a puzzle early. 

• If the goal is presented too late, the player wouldn't know what they're doing or why, and get no satisfaction from solving the puzzle.
 
• I want to present the player with every tool at their disposal at entering the puzzle.
​
• This way the puzzle solving can start right away.

Work Flow
• ​First I decided what the goal will be, what puzzle components I wanted, and how they would fit together.
 
• After finishing the puzzle, I started to ​rearrange the puzzle components and ​​block out the environment around them.
 
• I wanted the player to see the main puzzle components at all times, so I created a big and open main room, containing those components.
 
• Then I created paths around that main room, and made sure that it was always visible from those paths as well.
 
• To make the level feel more connected, and not having the player constantly introduced to new areas, I made the level always loop back to the main room.
​
• ​Doing that allowed me to utilize the different spaces of the level multiple times, instead of them being a one time use.

System Design

Puzzle Layout Tool
To make the construction of box constellations less painful we made our own Puzzle Layout Tool. This  allowed us to quickly design box constellations, as well as getting back to tweak it later on.

Match Three System
When making the match three system we made sure to make it very scalable. Adding new colors, box types, or changing how many boxes in a row is needed for them to be destroyed is very easy.

Box Movement
When making the movement for falling boxes we realized that physics based movement would be very instable and difficult to control. Thus we made all of the movement animated instead by lerping from position A to position B.

Other systems I've worked with for this project includes:
• Reset box constellations
• Rewind Steps
• ​Interaction System
• ​Box Swapping

​Collaboration

• Being only two developers on this project have enabled a very connected workflow.

• Me and Theo both have our fingerprints in all aspects of the project. Every design choice, mechanic and feature have beed discussed between the two of us.

• ​We use to visualize our workflow by saying that one of us has a ball, and throw the ball over to the other person.

​• ​That person then tears the ball apart, puts it back together and throws it back. This continues until we reach something we are both satisfied with. (The ball represents and idea).