A cooperative game with magnetic cats
Spring 2020
Magneko
Magneko is a two-player, physics-based puzzle game with a focus on teamwork and cooperation. Each of the two players can harness either the magnetic power of attraction or repulsion. Using these magnetic burst and beam abilities, players need to be methodical in order to progress through the levels. Although there is platforming, the puzzles mainly rely on the players using their magnetic abilities to interact with each other and objects in the game-world.
[Play 1, play 2]
I acted as the producer, game designer, and UI artist and programmer for this project. In my producer role, I was responsible for holding weekly check-in meetings with my four-person team where we discussed our weekly tasks. I also organized and participated in working meetings so that our team would complete features and assets on schedule. I moderated discussion, talked through code procedures, and evaluated the team's work throughout the development process.
[play 3, 4]
As the producer, I also spearheaded early and frequent play testing with outside participants. Our team learned a lot and and our product increased in quality because of this proactive measure. Since we started play testing so early on in our process, we were able to make bug fixes and changes to mechanics rapidly.
On the game design side of things, I brainstormed, refined game mechanics, and created prototypes with my teammates. Even though we came up with a lot, our scope was limited and we found ways to simplify or compromise in our mechanic decision so that they matched out design goals while staying within scope.
In addition, I assisted in asset creation, mainly for the user interface. This included the character select, start, level select menus, and level transitions. Once the designs were in place, I implemented them using C# inside of the Unity game engine. I assisted in level design and created tilemaps.