On this project, I was in charge of the development of the overworld, game mechanics, and overall narrative. The team and I went through many different iterations of the overworld that linked the 3 levels together, including shaving the game down to 2 levels at one point before adding the third back in. The world initially was designed to make players return to a central point which would be the location of the ending, but eventually I scrapped this piece as it started feeling repetitive. A similar ending was transposed to the ending of level 3, becoming an escape sequence rather than just an ending cutscene.

I used the overworld to create an overall sense of being followed and watched while also teaching the player the mechanics of the enemies without having to explicitly state their behaviors. The first iterations of the overworld did its job of disorienting and scaring the player too effectively, and so fences were added and used as barriers to the let player safely encounter the enemies and learn about them before having to face one head on.

The game mechanics were originally meant to change much more drastically as the player processed. We discussed powerups such as the ability to hack terminals and a repulse shot to push enemies away. Eventually, the only upgrade we kept for the player was the portable terminal access. I implemented a sequence that involved using a charging enemy to break items in a room that would unlock a special tool that let the player always access the overhead maps, rather than forcing them to go to a particular space to use them. I believed strongly in keeping to a few core mechanics and finding unique ways to use them for puzzles and iterating on those abilities rather than adding extra, possibly overwhelming aspects to the game.