The librarian is an interactive game where you have to possess and control characters to solve all the puzzles and find all the secrets. This prototype was created for the Game Off 2024 jam hosted by itch.io

Solving each puzzle will give the player new knowledge to apply to upcoming ones and be able to progress through the level.

1. Prepared a level sketch starting from the very initial concept
2. Added main and alternatives routes the players can take + the presence of potential shortcuts
3. Terrain layout per each zone + puzzle distribution
4. Establishing a height distribution throught the level to make it visually appealing and giving the possibility for hiding elements and linking zones in a certain way with the game mechanics
5. Level creation in engine from the final level layout on paper. Landscape preparation, sculpting, painting layers creation, etc
6. Level detailing by dressing each zone up with both puzzle elements and decorative assets following the flow's idea
7. Puzzle creation with the existing mechanics
8. Communication and collaboration with the other game designer to share views, ideas and level progression
9. Communication with programming team when it comes to testing and adding the mechanics to the game's level
10. Level testing and further polishing coming from said tests

As stated previously, this project was created for the Game Off 2024 jam hosted by itch.io. I joined the team as level designer and helped sketching, creating the prototype's level and dressing it up with assets and adding the different gameplay elements once programmed alongside with the game designer. Here's a breakdown of the level's creation from its conception to the final version.

This was the very initial level's concept when it comes to layout and structure I received upon joining the team. From here, the sketch evolved through multiple iterations that were discussed and polished with the game designer as follows.

From the previous initial concept, a main flow with alternative paths was designed and the map was divided in different zones. The zone distribution was meant to help setting up the different puzzles, both in terms of difficulty progression and how to connect the zones between them, giving the pathing proper sense and meaning.

Upon having the paths and zones in place, the next step was adding a first pass when it comes to distributing the puzzles in the different zones and deciding their difficulty. This was a key part of the design as it needed to combine both the possibility to present new puzzle mechanics to the players gradually and also increase the challenge whent it comes to solving them.

To avoid having a boring plane level without any sort of variation apart from visuals, the concept of different heights was added through the map, giving the chance to play with that concept and hide certain elements (like secrets) or give further meaning to some puzzle or movement mechanics. In the image, 0 represents the lowest height and 4 the highest