ROLE
Creative Director, Designer, Sound Designer
DESCRIPTION
At Winter's End is a cozy narrative dice-rolling RPG about 12-year-old Noel growing up in the forest of spirits. Explore the forest and complete quests while rolling dice to see how Noel responds to the challenges they face.
DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
July – September 2023 // 10 weeks
TOOLS USED
Unity, Photoshop, Illustrator, Logic Pro X, FMOD
OVERVIEW
Gameplay Trailer
"Every Winter gives way to Spring. For most people, this is a passive event: something that happens naturally thanks to the positions of hemispheres and stars.
But I know the reason why Winter ends. I know because the Wind told me."
At Winter's End was made over a period of 10 weeks during Summer 2023 by a team of 9 developers, funded by a grant from the University of Chicago.
On this project, I worked as Creative Director, Designer, and Sound Designer. I was responsible for leading the creative vision of the game and directing the art, sound, programming, and narrative departments, as well as communicating design decisions and changes between all of these departments and the engineering team.
I assisted with a number of production aspects of the project, including securing funding for the development and hiring the seven part-time interns who worked on the project, as well as coordinating with our producer about tasks management, production logistics, and team organization.
I also served as sound designer on the project, coordinating with our composer to design and implement the dynamic soundtrack in the game and designing the environmental landscape of the game as well. Lastly, I contributed some programming to the project, including Unity prototyping, FMOD integration, and particle system design.
My Contributions:
Creative Direction/Project Lead:
Coordinating with project sponsors at the University of Chicago and securing grant funding
Interviewing and hiring a team of 7 part-time interns from a large applicant pool
Leading brainstorming, ideation, and pitch process
Designing core mechanics and the look and feel of the game
Coordinating all creative aspects of the project, communicating between art, sound, programming, and narrative teams to create a cohesive product
Coordinating and running playtests
Technical Design:
Constructing dynamic layered 2D environments in Unity
Creating and managing asset pipelines from concept to implementation
Creating dynamic soundtrack and ambience system using FMOD for Unity and Unity scripting
Designing mockups and layouts for UI, tutorials, and menu flow
Prototyping and integrating weather using Unity particle systems
Sound Design:
Designing dynamic soundtrack with composer
Integrating the dynamic soundtrack in FMOD
Collecting and integrating foley for sound effects and dynamic ambience in FMOD
General mixing
