TEMPORAL FUSE
Six-Person Team
Apr 2020 - May 2020
Made With: Dreams on Playstation 4
A first-person time-looping thriller. Armed with experimental time manipulation gear, it's up to you to find and defuse four bombs on four different floors of a skyscraper. In 30 seconds. Can you save the city?
Game Designer & Producer
Gathered reference photos for levels and UI, then prototyped on paper for rapid iteration
Collaborated with artists and programmers to take systems, UI, and levels from prototype to polished product.
Tracked tasks/bugs and held team accountable for their action items
What Worked?
Space - To create gameplay that focused on exploring and planning, I manipulated sightlines, lights, and guiding lines to make players switch between bottom-up and top-down processing.
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AAA Difficulty - By strategically changing sightlines, size of the spaces, number of routes, and the amount of time players had for exploration - iterating based on feedback - I ensured the difficulty was challenging but fun.
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Ticking Tension - I led developed of a variety of signifiers to constantly remind the player that doom was imminent, ensuring our players leaving us comments like, "This was so tense! I want more!"
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Setpieces - Between sections of the gameplay loop, I used spectacular scripted sequences - like a skyscraper crashing into the side of a building - to keep things interesting, and to leave players with a memorable experience.
What Didn't?
Architecture Crash Course - Playtesters told me early level iterations made no sense architecturally. Following that feedback, I collected reference photos to create a cohesive architectural style, watched videos on architecture, and used extensive paper layouts before continuing greyboxing.
Boxiness and Scale - The spaces I designed were interesting within the gameplay context, but were essentially disguised boxes that rarely ventured off-grid. Furthermore, I didn't account for scale very accurately which led to odd artifacts like doorways that were two feet thick.
Teach Before Tension - Originally, the time stop mechanic was explained while the bomb timer was counting down. But players to misunderstand or ignored the mechanic. Instead, introducing it during the tutorial level allowed players to digest the information without interference.
Narrative Clarity - Due to tight deadlines, I was polishing while iterating. As a result, some sections of the game displayed a mishmash of conflicting ideas. Playtests showed that people enjoyed these sequences nonetheless, with some testers sharing that those were their favorite parts.