DEVHELL

Escape the game engine you're building — Witty Award, shown at GIST 2022.

challenge →: Expo visitors had to understand the game without a tutorial wall.
what i did →: Built blockouts, ran live playtests, and added a 3-tier hint ladder with mostly spatial guidance.
result →: Witty Award at BUG Spring Jam 2022; shown at GIST 2022.

project type: Game Jam Project
role: Game Designer
team: 4 (Designer, Programmer, Artist, Sound)
scope: 72 h jam → expo slice
engine: Unity
duration: 72 h (jam) + ~3 months (slice)
status: Showcased slice (paused)
recognition: Shown at GIST 2022; Witty Award at BUG Spring Jam 2022

Closed project — design-only archive.

★ Witty Award Winner — BUG Spring Jam 2022

Show-floor slice of a story-driven platformer about being trapped inside the game engine you're building. I originated the idea, built blockouts, and — through very organic playtests — shaped a readable interaction flow with a simple hint ladder for expo play.

My contributions

Originated the core concept ("escape the engine"); pitched pillars and the show-floor slice goal.
Built in-engine blockouts and iterated level readability (routes, landmarks, timings).
Ran organic playtests (friends/peers at the lab); adjusted flow and pacing based on live observations.
Authored a lightweight hint ladder (subtle → explicit) to prevent soft-locks during expo play.
Wrote minimal UI micro-copy so guidance stays mostly spatial.

Design notes

Core toy: manipulate dev-feel geometry (drag/scale/rotate), checkpointed progress, quick retries.
UX: no persistent HUD; guidance via layout, timing, and environment prompts.
Process reality: first project — few formal notes; decisions captured straight in the blockout.

Results & learnings

My first post-school project — learned booth readability, hint ladders, and fast blockouts.
Big takeaways: start playable blockouts early, guardrails beat tutorial walls, and even a 3-tier hint ladder saves expos.
What I'd do next time: keep a lightweight playtest log (timestamp, observation, change) and a simple issue → fix board to capture decisions between blockout passes.

Gallery

GDD excerpt — drag/scale/rotate platform tools + undo
In-game screenshot
In-game screenshot