Prism’s Core Mechanic Design

Developing Prism’s core mechanic to serve as the foundation for Prism’s gameplay and level design.

Role: Game Designer

Timeline: 8 weeks

  • Prism had been in the planning phase of development focusing on ideating the game’s design pillars and narrative. Though aspects of the plot have been established, Prism’s core mechanic and gameplay loop had yet to be defined. This prototype developed over 3 sprints aimed to develop a solid core gameplay loop, the crucial foundation for shaping Prism’s plot and level design ahead of pre-production.

    • Identify and iterate potential gameplay features

    • Validate mechanics through play test feedback

    • Design a core mechanic and game loop

  • A ‘Magnetic Throw’ mechanic with similarities to other popular mechanics such as Krato’s Axe and Captain America’s shield but with its own unique identity inspired by magnetism.

Tools: UE5

Game Development Process

My process for designing and iterating over Prism’s core mechanic.

Page section links:

Ideation

Contextual Review

Planning

Prototyping

Ideation

The initial ideas for Prism’s mechanics and gameplay

Prototyping initial ideas

🎥 Visit my TikTok and YouTube channel for the extended version of these videos.

Before this project’s development, I prototyped my initial ideas for magnetic abilities in Unity to visualize them and better understand how to expand on them. I then prototyped these mechanics in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) to see how these abilities would play out in 3D. These early prototypes served as a proof of concept that I had both the skills and appropriate technology to develop Prism’s mechanics.

I learned that prototypes:

  • Add tangible context to obscure ideas to help them take shape.

  • Shed light on what mechanics are or aren’t enjoyable and worth further exploring.

  • Inspire new ideas through spontaneous playfulness.

Pitching game concepts

The goal of sprint 1 was to brainstorm and pitch gameplay concept ideas and to pick an area of focus for the rest of the sprints. The first idea was to focus on using magnetic abilities for navigation and exploring a space. The second concept was focused on combat and how to use magnetic abilities to escape a horde of enemies. Presentation feedback suggested combining both ideas into 1 gameplay concept that explored using magnetism for both platforming and attacking enemies.

Initial pitch concepts

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Prism’s Level 1 Act 1 concept

I combined the 2 game concept ideas into 1 and planned my sprint schedule with testing features that supported this gameplay.

Chosen pitch concept

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👩🏾‍🏫 View my Final Pitch Presentation for this project.

Next Steps in Process

Extend mechanic into gameplay loops

Play with Prism’s magnetic abilities to discover what affordances they intuitively provide players to design meaningful systems.

Develop a combat gameplay demo

Demo Prism’s gameplay in a battle arena level to showcase her abilities and platforming.