: Game Designer
Lei Qian
LIGHTMARE
VIDEO
ABOUT THE GAME
LIGHTMARE is a 2.5D, side-scrolling, puzzle/platformer where the player must use various types of light to manipulate their environment.
In “the game, players must traverse a nightmare landscape, solve puzzles, avoid hazards, and combat enemies in a desperate attempt to save their disturbed sister who has been imprisoned within her own mental delusions.
we started the game focusing on puzzle gameplay that revolved around reflecting light and refracting it through environmental objects. We spent a lot of time prototyping simply developing as much as we could within the confines that we had.
When starting out we really didn’t have a base template or any published games to use as examples to work and build from. As such, we spent a lot of time trying to create something uniquely our own, while also making it fun, however not having any guiding framework really hampered our development process.
Despite these challenges and developmental hurdles, we managed to come together as a team, create something that we are all proud of, and learned a multitude of lessons related to development, communication, and team cohesion that we wouldn’t have been able to get any other way.
WHAT I DID
I focused on level design, mechanics design, Level environment, and art style, I also programmed the first versions of the Enemy AI. During these four months I improved a lot of my skills since I focused on level design, I had to keep thinking how to communicate with players, teach them the new mechanics in an interesting and clear way. I asked many players to help me playtest, got the feedback and improved my design.
I also spent a lot of time thinking how to use same mechanics in different ways. I made new levels every other day. I also did research to get new ideas.
In these 4 months, My communication skills improved a lot. My team has 5 people, different gender(2 females and 3 males), different ages( from 19 to 27), also from different countries. I learned how to work with people that have a different culture and background. I have to respect their culture, learn the way they used to think about things. We had a lot of conflicts but that's how we improved our project. During the working time, we stayed professional, took things seriously. But after work, we shared our daily life with each other, played games together.