Rosalia
A small fantasy puzzle about a strange friendship. You puzzle through the chambers of an ancient castle using light, and start an adventure with a new friend.
- My role
- Everything
- Setup
- Solo
- Tools
- Unity, Blender
Brief & goal
This project was created together with a master thesis, focusing on companion design.
The goal was an object companion, and to work with its limits in the game. I did extensive research to understand companions in general, and object companions in other games.
Design reasoning
The main mechanic is a magical lantern that is the friend of the player. It shoots light beams.
To make the game more interesting, those beams can activate doors, stun enemies, and deflect via mirrors.
Role & collaborators
Everything. This was a solo project.
Tools
Process
Alongside the build I worked on a trailer and a pitch deck: the first time I looked at indie marketing around the game, not only at making it.
- 01Prototype the main mechanic
- 02Player model
- 03Level design / creating levels
- 04Textures on the levels
- 05Sound effects, VFX, and the rest
Challenges
- A real difficulty was giving the object companion its own autonomy. During the project I realised how important that is to make a companion believable and give it more presence. I tried other routes: how the object looks on screen, and more voice lines, but more autonomy would have made it better. I had ideas for that, and never got to execute them — the challenge was too large, and I wanted to stay coherent in the game mechanic.
- This is the first project where I considered almost every aspect of indie game marketing. During the project I worked on a trailer, a pitch deck, and so on: almost the full process of selling a game.
What worked
- The Rosalia face model worked: it is very expressive and fits the cartoony style of the game.
- Random voice lines helped with companion believability.
- There was an energy bar / recharge system for the companion. That made the player treat it with more caution, and think of it more.
What could have gone better
One of my biggest mistakes was starting with the story. I am a huge fan of narrative and of story, but in this case it did not work well.
I had a lot more ideas, and I believe the game still could have been better even with the way I worked. On my next project I will use Fumito Ueda’s method: interesting gameplay first, then complement it with the story.