Luminary
Warning: This page is still a WIP as this project is actively being developed!
Devana the Moon Witch awakens one day to the Lunar Wards’ protection falling after a Moon Flare breaks the magic shield. By using healthy plants, Devana must heal the forest from the various types of magical corruption brought in by the Moon Flare. Now she must reactivate the opposing Lunar Ward and restore the magic shield for the forest’s sake.
Prototype with Grayscale artwork
(Fall Semester) Mechanic Prototype artwork
Inspiration
Our game will be one that sends a powerful message on conservation and how pollution affects the world around us. As the player explores the world, they will see how simply by one person’s actions, we can start to save the corruption of pollution in our world.
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Design Pillars
Cleanse/Completion/Exploration
The overall goal of the game would be to give the player a sense of cleansing the forest from the various types of corruption caused by the chaos magic. The nurturing process of healing the forest, exploring the various biomes, and fixing the lunar ward should aim for the player to feel a sense of completion and/or exploration.
Fire-Based Corruption Concept Art
Corruption Concept Art
Design Lead on a 14 person team
Being the only full time designer led to some interesting challenges for this project, such as managing the part-time design team while also keeping up my production related duties.
Due to this management, we actually had a huge pivot between how mechanically our game worked. We originally had a more intense mechanic system where the corruption in the world would slowly spread and the player had to defend their base. But this broke our core pillar: cozy and relaxing! So in the spring, we completely revamped our mechanic system to focus more on exploring and 'curing' the forest so that the goal is the same but at a calmer pace.
Player Guidance within the game
During the game, Devana can access her journal which has various tabs in it for specific needs. As the player explores and new knowledge is learned, a little red marker appears in the corresponding tab to alert that new knowledge has been discovered.
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The big three tabs are: The Index, which covers the biomes and ingridents Devana can discover, The Recipes, which handles potion combinations, and the Puzzle Guide, which is the tips and tricks to solve the various biome-based puzzles.
Exploration of the world
As Devana explores the forest, various types of Chaotic Magic has influenced the plantlife. Fire, Ice, and Water are fighting against Devana due to the power of the Full Chaos Moon.
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To encourage exploration, we decided to have the elements in the Chaos Magic to balance each other out. Water beats fire, Fire beats ice, ice beats water! By exploring the forest, Devana can learn this knowledge and apply it to the various puzzles to ensure that all of the Chaos Magic is cleansed.
HUD Boards
Fall Semester - Base defender HUD
The very first (rough) prototype
Discussing with the systems designer, the original goal was for the game to be a first-person, 3-D exploration game. However, I wanted it to be clear that the player was in range to detect a plant's health so they could heal it accordingly. As well as getting a general overall feel for mana, supply counters, and anything the player could have picked up in their (limited) inventory.
The prototype with new features!
While the level was still being developed, as the User Interface designer, I was able to work alongside the User Interface artist to get the rough prototype sketches into more official art-style. I then messed around with placements, to include the temporary popups of the mini-map and dialogue box to ensure the screen wasn't "too" cluttered at any given moment.
Spring Semester - Exploration HUD
Prototyping over Engine Screenshot
After fall semester, we drastically shifted our game mechanically. This meant we needed an entirely new interface. We went from a base-defender like to an open-world exploration type. But we needed to let the player know what's going on in their inventory during the "puzzle" areas versus the "safe" areas. I introduced the dial inventory for ease of tracking sake. If players know that any usable item will always be in the bottom right, then they also know how much of something they need based on the counters on the left.
Final version
As of April 2025, this is the current state of the interface during a "puzzle" area. The counters were dropped in favor of having the counters inside the journal instead. The journal is also now displayed in the bottom left, which will "blink" red when new items / information is discovered. As well as giving the crafting and journal more purpose in the overall gameplay looop.