Baaa-Lend In!

Game Type: 2.5D Point-and-Click, Choices Matter, Comedy, Multiple Endings
Engine: Unity
Language: C# Scripting
Project Duration: 4 months
Team Size: 5

In this project, I was the project manager, UX/UI designer and artist, scene level designer, and game systems designer and programmer. My contributions built the foundation of the first minigame, constructed clean user interface, polished existing systems, and a outlined a straight-forward game loop.

Play in-browser on our itch.io below!

Itch.io

As a team member of Baaa-Lend In!, I worked as:

Project Manager

Delivered the team project and prepared its digital landing zone on itch.io.
Communicated our progress to our stakeholder during our in-class team work sessions.
Directed others, delegated tasks, and checked-in remotely to see progress of the game.

UX/UI Artist & Designer

Designed and iterated the goat-human meter UI to bridge the gap between systems and player experience.
Researched visual novel games to establish clear a dialogue and gameplay UI layout.
Collaborated with another UI artist and communicated clear design goals.

Level Designer

Constructed a cohesive style guide and design document that served as the foundation for the game.
Drafted all 5 ending scenes, 3+ level layouts.
Refactored minigame 2 scene architecture with engineer.

Game Systems Design and Programming

Formulated the basis of player movement in minigame 1.
Actively debugged the dialogue system with programmers when roadblocks occurred.
Brainstormed and ideated the final minigames.

Gameplay Screenshots

The old president comes back disheveled and sees the goat in his office chair

Project Manager

What did I learn and overcome?

Risks and mitigating them: Our passionate team had many enthusiastic ideas, most of which were beyond our time-constraint. Together, we worked around what was possible and formed our scope.
Breaking tensions: The team's dynamic was awkward in the beginning. We broke the ice by getting to know who we are outside of class.
Teaching others: 2 members were from the Engineering college and were unfamiliar with C# scripting. I gave them resources and quick-tips that helped with our workflow.

Game Ideation Board

Midpoint Milestone Presentation

UX/UI Artist & Designer

Goat Meter Manager

Iterating Prototypes

Teamwork: Foundation of goat-human meter was implemented by another designer. I iterated it ensuring it was clean and fit the aesthetic.
Accessibility: Adding the gold coin made the profiles more accessible. Also expanded the meter to include a larger green threshold for players to get the good ending in an easier way.

Buttons

Research:

Spongebob: Continue button and decorative assets inspired by essay he writes in "Procrastination", Episode 37 of Season 2.
18th Century Scripture Proper Decorative Flourish: Foundation was based on this type of scripture. Ornate, organic, fluid, and floral felt presidential.

Collaboration & Accessibility:

Continue Button: In collaboration with another artist on the team, we worked together to ensure it had enough visibility to players.

Game Mode Screen

Contributions

Iterations & Rendering:

Collaboration: Worked with another designer to create a themed game-mode screen. Ensured text was legible and rendered the UI.

Main Menu Screen

Contributions

Iterations & Rendering:

Collaboration: Worked with another designer to create a themed main menu. Rendered the UI and sprite animations.

Level Design

What I Learned

Dynamic Changes

The team wanted more 3D for the game, but it was unrealistic for our second mini-game. We kept the fun factor of the second mini-game and compromised the 3D part of it.

Tutorials

Teaching the player how to play the game isn't always the easiest part. We made sure our tutorials were repayable for players to practice before committing to the real mini-game.

Game Design Document

Rough Gameflow

Research: Class of '09 (link) was a big inspiration in our narrative and how the player makes choices to affect which ending they get.

Goal: Straightforward gameplay loop. The player makes dialogue choices and plays minigames that make them more Goat or more Human. The ending is dependent on their choices.

Minigame 1

Contributions:

Designed and rendered the basic outline of the 3D sphere.

Research:

Level layout was inspired by the Oval Office in the White House.

Minigame 2

Contributions:

Polished placement of UI to ensure readability and assets are within the frame of gameplay.

Research:

Rendered and created the supporting environment layout. Inspired by the United Nations meeting room.

Endings

Pre-Ending

Designed pre-ending where the goat is at a press conference and a newspaper headline appears to tell the player what ending they get.

Ending Layouts

Brainstormed and sketched all ending layouts. Each one was designed to be as absurd as possible.

Games System Designer & Programmer

Minigame 1 Base Movement

Code Snippet

Contributions:
- Provided the base movement of picking up items and constraining the player's view.
Takeaways:
- Easier to not hardcode how far the tabs move.
- It's okay for gameplay design to change, I was prepared to put in the work and optimize the script to better fit our ideas.

Dialogue System Polishing

Communication

Contributions:
- Expanded an existing system written by another programmer and provided feedback to polish it.
Takeaways:
- Being specific with design implementations to programmers that have not worked in Unity before.

WebGL Build

Example

Contributions:
- Delivered a WebGL Build to be accessible by all players on itch.io page.
Takeaways:
- Testing this the build beforehand. WebGL build needed more polish, but the team was running out of time.

Audio Engineering

Secretary Sunny and a conversation with Mr President

Code Snippet

Contributions:
- Implemented audio in over 50% of the scenes.
Takeaways:
- New learning experience for me, I haven't touched audio before.
- It's better to implement audio as we go, because it was included last minute.

Baaa-Lend In!

As a team member of Baaa-Lend In!, I worked as:

Project Manager

Delivered the team project and prepared its digital landing zone on itch.io.

Communicated our progress to our stakeholder during our in-class team work sessions.

Directed others, delegated tasks, and checked-in remotely to see progress of the game.

UX/UI Artist & Designer

Designed and iterated the goat-human meter UI to bridge the gap between systems and player experience.

Researched visual novel games to establish clear a dialogue and gameplay UI layout.

Collaborated with another UI artist and communicated clear design goals.

Level Designer

Constructed a cohesive style guide and design document that served as the foundation for the game.

Drafted all 5 ending scenes, 3+ level layouts.

Refactored minigame 2 scene architecture with engineer.

Game Systems Design and Programming

Formulated the basis of player movement in minigame 1.

Actively debugged the dialogue system with programmers when roadblocks occurred.

Brainstormed and ideated the final minigames.

Gameplay Screenshots

Project Manager

UX/UI Artist & Designer

Level Design

Games System Designer & Programmer

Minigame 1 Base Movement

Contributions:

Provided the base movement of picking up items and constraining the player's view.

Takeaways:

Easier to not hardcode how far the tabs move.

It's okay for gameplay design to change, I was prepared to put in the work and optimize the script to better fit our ideas.

Dialogue System Polishing

Contributions:

Expanded an existing system written by another programmer and provided feedback to polish it.

Takeaways:

Being specific with design implementations to programmers that have not worked in Unity before.

WebGL Build

Contributions:

Delivered a WebGL Build to be accessible by all players on itch.io page.

Takeaways:

Testing this the build beforehand. WebGL build needed more polish, but the team was running out of time.

Audio Engineering

Contributions:

Implemented audio in over 50% of the scenes.​

Takeaways:

New learning experience for me, I haven't touched audio before.

It's better to implement audio as we go, because it was included last minute.

Implemented audio in over 50% of the scenes.