Aberrance
PC/MAC/LINUX MULTIPLAYER PUZZLE UNITY
Roles: Lead Game Designer,
Artist, Producer
Project Timeline:
3 Weeks
Team Size:
4 People
Overview
Aberrance is a cooperative puzzle game designed to portray individualization, self-acceptance, and using your differences in order to progress through the game. All four players begin the same, and as the journey progresses, each player slowly develops in different ways. They must work together and use their differences to continue their journey.
Contributions
- Lead Game design and idea development.
- Visual design and creation (Concepts, Lighting, Materials, Particles, Animations, Scene Creation).
- Designed unique character controller concepts that would harmonize well together.
- Made sure the project was on track and kept everyone motivated.
- Created a work environment where all team members strengths would be utilized.
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Design
In Aberrance, I really wanted to focus on one of the biggest social issues people in our society face: trying to be "normal" and fitting in. Because of this, I designed an experience aimed at showing that our differences are what makes us stronger as a whole. I didn't want to make this message obvious to the players, so I designed the game to reflect this message through gameplay and visuals so the players would slowly realize this message on their own.
The first thing I wanted the player to feel was a sense of unknown. To achieve this, I gave the players 2 choices. The first choice was to follow all the other blocks to fit in, which results in the game restarting to represent the player not changing/growing as a person. The second choice was to ignore the other blocks and go the opposite direction to the opening of light, representing the player starting to accept their differences.
After you exit the first scene every person evolves into a different form and gains a unique ability. Each players’ differences continue to grow as the group progresses through the game. Each player is weak in some aspects but also become incredibly strong in other aspects. Even though each player is not perfect, as a team each individual brings a certain ability, leading to each player being crucial to complete each level.
By the end of the game, I wanted the players to realize that none of the characters are better compared to the rest. Just like how everyone is born a different person, doesn’t mean that certain differences are better. Each person is a piece of a puzzle in our society, and as a whole, we complete each other.
 Initial grey box of the intro sceneI wanted to provoke the feeling that you are not special and you are just an ordinary cube beside all of these other cubes. |  Second revision of the intro levelWith this version, I really wanted to strengthen the emotion the player felt not feeling important or unique so I increased the contrast and created a more dramatic lighting setup. |  Initial grey box of the hub sceneExploring ideas of how I can make the player feel like they are progressing and that they are as a player becoming more confident with themselves and their abilities. |
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 Revision on the initial block outI decided to create a complete contrast with the intro scene. Going from complete darkness to something extremely powerful and happy to show that they have entered the path of becoming unique and finding themselves. |  Designing LevelsDesigning the levels we had to make sure that no player ever felt left out or useless and every character had their moments of feeling useful and feeling like an integral part of the team. | EndingThe ending is a representation of the idea that our differences are what makes us stronger as a group and that we should value uniqueness in society. |
Design Principles & Goals
- Create a sense of mystery and wonder.
- Visuals and audio compliment the gameplay.
- Create Immersion, diagetic UI.
- Easy to pick up and play.
