DEVHELL

⚠️ This is a closed project – design-only archive.

🏆 Witty Award Winner – BUG Spring Jam 2022

TL;DR
Show-floor slice of a story-driven platformer about being trapped inside the game engine you’re building. I originated the idea, built blockouts, and—through very organic playtests—shaped a readable interaction flow with a simple hint ladder for expo play.

My Contributions

Originated the core concept (“escape the engine”); pitched pillars and the show-floor slice goal.

Built in-engine blockouts and iterated level readability (routes, landmarks, timings).

Ran organic playtests (friends/peers at the lab); adjusted flow and pacing based on live observations.

Authored a lightweight hint ladder (subtle → explicit) to prevent soft-locks during expo play.

Wrote minimal UI micro-copy so guidance stays mostly spatial.

Design Notes

Core toy: manipulate/dev-feel geometry (drag/scale/rotate), checkpointed progress, quick retries.

UX: no persistent HUD; guidance via layout, timing, and environment prompts.

Process reality: first project—few formal notes; decisions captured straight in the blockout.

Results & Learnings

My first post-school project—learned booth readability, hint ladders, and fast blockouts.

Big takeaways: start playable blockouts early, guardrails beat tutorial walls, and even a 3-tier hint ladder saves expos.

What I’d do next time: keep a lightweight playtest log (timestamp, observation, change) and a simple issue→fix board to capture decisions between blockout passes.