Boxed In
Boxed In is a minimalist 2D mobile platformer that uses narrative and level design to explore codependent relationships and what why someone would choose to stay in one. This project allowed me to not only act as producer, but as a storyteller. The minimalist art style gave me the opportunity to think outside the box and figure out how to tell a story about something as complicated as relationship dynamics and turn that into a fun game loop.
Development
Ideation Phase
With the challenge of addressing a serious topic with this game, our ideation phase involved a lot more planning than past projects. I assigned everyone to think about which issue they wanted to design for our game, and we would talk through it. Eventually, we decided to do codependency and even reached out to a professional psychologist who we met with and discussed the psyche of someone who is in this type of relationship.
Development Phase
From our first class, I gave out tasks for each team member and told them in person what needed to be done by the next time we met in class. I regularly updated the Trello board and was later told by my artist that she appreciated how organized the task list was, so she knew exactly what she needed to do.
Narrative and Level Design
With the direction of our game's narrative, I was also heavily involved with the design including level and sound. I worked with the team to decide on our three levels and how the puzzles should work to show someone falling deeper into a codependent relationship. The puzzles, music, and colors were all intentionally picked to create a narrative by just using 2D shapes. I decided that we would need simple text bubbles to give our players hints of what the story was really about. I wrote these texts and placed them in the level where it would most make sense for where the player was in their journey.
Presentation Phase
I designed our one sheet for the game which I used to present our game's design to our class. During playtesting, I stood by our game to help answer any questions and encourage players to fill out our questionnaire form I created for feedback. There was a lot of positive reception toward our game and many people were determined to finish all three levels.
In our last discussion, our team mentioned how great our team's communication was and appreciated that we could always troubleshoot any issue we ran into during development.
