PHANTOM FOWL
Designing with Chaos to Inspire Collaboration
Role — Game Designer, UXUI Designer, Level Designer
Duration — 1 Week
Genre — Chaotic Co-Op, Tower Defense
The Synthesis game studio set aside 1 week for a game jam. Everyone brainstormed a few game pitches and passed them around for critique. After a few critiques, adjustments and votes my pitch—Phantom Fowl—was selected to be prototyped and played to company stakeholders for fit. This chaotic co-op tower defense game is inspired by build-your-path games like Ultimate Chicken Horse and Bloons.
My Responsibilities
About
Research, design, and establish UX flow.
Give art direction and vision feedback to the team’s artist.
Low and high-fidelity design mocks for the gameplay loop.
Seak feedback from senior game developers to improve gameplay interactions.
Interactive prototypes to showcase unique features, flows, user actions, and animations.
Collaborate with game developers and stakeholders, present & review designs.
Various art and design assets including icons, characters, infographics, etc.
Conduct play tests with kids to evaluate and revise UX patterns and UI accessibility issues.
Create a style guide and asset repository for marketing content.
The Design Prompt: Our Game…
A Week-Long
Game Jam
The Final Playtest
surfaces difficult, complex, consequential, and strategic decisions
requires multifaceted collaboration—not merely communication or coordination.
embraces a highly stylized aesthetic
values originality in game design
features 3+ players minimum (per team) in a wide variety of contexts and configurations
requires participation from all players (all players are valuable.)
is intelligible but not overly explained
uniquely leverages the Synthesis platform (ideally as mechanics)
thoughtfully balances each players:
mind (what they’re thinking about)
mouth (what they’re communicating), and
hands (what they’re required to do)
It DOES NOT:
pander to kids—in difficulty or complexity
pander to kids—in words, tone, or style
have one right solution—must be replayable
use speed to artificially seem fun
Concluding the jam, two playable prototypes will be tested by company stakeholders. One pitch will be greenlit for production.
Level Design
LEVEL DESIGN GOAL + PHILOSOPHY
Encourage players to use the map obstacles in their building and to sabotage other teams.
The final map is framed by rhomboidal fog that funnels all players through obstacles towards resource—filled center area.
