Destiny Baby Reborn:
As Many Times as It Takes
Concept & Title by Valeria Mejia
Art by: Adriana Mejia
DESTINY BABY REBORN: AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES is stealth, puzzle game where we follow the fallen hero RICARDIO who was resurrected by one of the Goddesses fairies LAIRO’TUT in order to have Ricardio complete his journey and fulfill his prophecy as the hero of ages. Lead Ricardio through his adventure as he attempts to reach the surface of the dungeon and continue on his heroic journey.
Roles: Game Designer, Narrative Designer, 3D Modeler, Artist, Graphic Designer, QA Test Overseer
Design
Initial Game Concept Research:
My first job when working on DBR was understanding the aesthetic, look and feel we wanted our game to have. I did extensive research on different looks for dungeons and zombie games. One thing that we discussed early on in the game was making the game “low poly” which can look like many things from Minecraft to Valheim. We decided to work on a medium low-poly style to be able to play with more detail without making the assets difficult and time consuming to create. Alongside that we started to discuss how RICARDIO would look like. I recommended as the dungeon color palette would be dark and gloomy, and also the game would also work with low lighting, RICARDIO’s model should stand out from the background as much as possible, with a lighter green contrasting the dark green background.
Art/3d Modeling
Game Assets/ Environmental Assets:
Created using AUTODESK MAYA and texturing utilizing AUTODESK MUDBOX
As we were working on creating our game one thing that became extremely important to us was how understandable the game’s story and mechanics were.
One thing that we put a lot of emphasis when we were QA testing was asking the testers their opinions on the camera. As the artist of the team this was very important for me to know as the assets were all created with the intention of looking good and understandable in that specific angle of camera. Alongside that we worked a lot of time on the storytelling of the game and went through a lot of hurdles making sure that the story was
1. not too much and
2. easy to follow with the dialogue we were adding into the game.
Even though it was a dungeon-crawler, stealth, puzzle game we still wanted there to be a central focus on the story being told.
Our QA Test sessions would follow the following layout,
Give the play testers an overview of the game and things that we are→ Give them the game to play with no instructions (unless something is not explicitly stated in the game tutorial yet) → Allow them 10 minutes of playtime without interference → Ask them starter questions sure the questions are both not leading and open ended so we are able to get detailed responses → Let them play 10 more minutes, this time they are able to ask questions to us about how to advance in the game (taking notes on what were the sections they were struggling/ asking questions about)
QA Testing
Wake Up
Follow Teika through her day as a ninja in training, it has always been her dream to become a full-fledged ninja. Help Teika prepare and train alongside her team as well as aid her in figuring out what has kept her so restless…
Roles: Character Design, Narrative Design, Game Design, Sound design, Graphic Design
Project Goal
Create a small-scale game focusing on one specific aspect of video game creation (narrative, character creation, sound design, gameplay, UI layout, aesthetic). Keeping the scale small and manageable for one person, we can use any game making engine we feel most comfortable in.
The concept for this game came from another project I was working on for my narrative design class making a TWINE game. The main underlying theme of the game is “maladaptive daydreaming”, I wanted to experiment different ways I could approach designing a game where the player could experience one side of how strong maladaptive daydreaming can really be. With the goal of the project being a smaller scale I had to focus mostly on getting the main themes through to the player by leaving small hints throughout the game, and at the very end trying to create an ending where the theme wasn’t just handed to the player but hopefully evoke a thought on what the game was really trying to get through to the player.
Alongside considering the story there was a big limitation being Bitsy’s limited customization. Knowing what were my assets I had to do work with I had to maximize their uses as much as possible and focused my time in building the world tile by tile as well as creating dialogue between characters that not only built affinity but also aided with world building what I wasn’t able to add.
Design
GAMEPLAY SCREENSHOTS
A Non-Human love
An 8bit puzzle game dedicated to my deceased dog Luna. In this game you play as Luna as she ventures through the journey of life. Through puzzles we go through the different stages of life she was able to experience during her short time in this world. While not a perfect narrative game by any means I wanted to make a game celebrating her life!
Roles: Character Design, Narrative Design, Game Design, Sound design, Graphic Design
Project Goal
When I started designing this project I went back and forth with how I wanted to approach telling this story as it’s a topic that is very sensitive to me, however that sensitiveness is exactly what I needed to express intimacy. In this game we play as Luna as we take her along her journey in life. Every room in the game symbololizes the stages she went through in her life. One decision I purposely made for this game was for it to feel incomplete and really short as that was how I felt when she passed.
With the limitations of Bitsy I utilized them to my advantage and created a very simple game, kind of how dogs view life extremely simply, prioritizing delivering an experience to the player by not having the main character be a human, but instead an animal.
Create a game that touches on the subject of intimacy, focus on the narrative design and world building to help complement the story being told and the characters being created. Focusing on the emotional experience the player should have before, during and after playing the game.
Design
Gameplay Screenshots
LOVE & WITHER
Roles: Narrative Design, Game Design, Graphic Design, Canva, PowerPoint Presentation, Presentation Skills
Project Goal
Use an existing game, alongside an existing porto-myth and together create a game that explores different game mechanics while also exploring the story of the Myth.
Design
For this project I used as a base the game Lasers & Feelings by John Harper Tabletop RPG (TTRPG) where all the rules, and the game-board are all in the same page.
Some of the challenges that I faced were translating the aspects of the myth into the game mechanic in a way where I could keep the integrity of the original story while also staying true to the mechanics and story progression of the original game. Making the “create a space adventure” was extremely tricky as I had to make sure every possible scenario still made sense in the world I was building throughout the game. Making sure everything fit in the page was very tricky and a design challenge I enjoyed.
