• Designed, prototyped, and implemented gameplay mechanics, systems, and levels. (Turn-based combat, platforming physics, interactions, progression, UI)

• Collected, analyzed, and applied playtester feedback during design iteration to improve the game experience. (Managed both private and public playtests—including one playtest with over 100 players)

• Designed and balanced RPG mechanics including equipment, items, and abilities to increase strategic diversity. (For player controlled entities and non-player entities)

• Designed a branching narrative and wrote dialog for world building, tutorials, and gameplay mechanics. (Character and enemy abilities, NPC conversations, system tutorials, etc.)

• Handled various artistic tasks.  (Visual illustrations, animation, UI design, music)

• Exploration is Progression. If the narrative drives progression, exploration drives the narrative. Nothing happens in this game unless the player discovers it.

• It's a Metroidvania for Me. Backtracking, power-ups, a little bit of confusion here and there, and most importantly a sprawling interconnected world that unlocks non-linearly over time.

• There's Something Behind that Rock. There's always something new to discover and there's always something missing. If a player finishes their first playthrough with 100% completion, then I have failed.

To give each environment its own distinct flare, I drew various background and foreground objects: Plant life, clave walls, lighting fixtures, a giant tree, some planets, etc. I then separated them into layers and wrote a script to have each layer animate as the player moves from one location in a scene to another. The slower a background layer moves, the farther away it is perceived to be. You can see this in the GIF below.

• Interlude Village. The main hub. Connects to many other areas of the game. Stuck in a state of constant twilight and always raining.

• Urban Area. The intro area. Introduces the basics of exploration and combat. Near the surface, partially outside the spacecraft's interior. An overgrown, jungle-like environment.

• Village Basement. The area below Interlude Village. Rain from above trickles down.

• Village Ruins. The ruins of an acient civilization of underground inhabitants. Dark and dingy.

• Progression is the Narrative. If exploration drives the narrative, then the narrative is just a bunch of triggered events, scattered throughout the world. These events set the game world into motion and after each one, the world adapts.

• Characters, Characters, Characters. The world is full of a diverse cast of characters, and those characters all have their own lives. They live in different places, establishing different communities with their own aspirations. Characters, controlled by the player, drive the narrative.

• The Truly Meaningful Things in Life are Just Around the Corner. In life, we often chase after the wrong things. Unfortunately, we often only realize what truly matters after it's already too late. In many ways, Holo & Veil is a story about giving up, relinquishing those meaningless things and holding on to what truly matters.

I have split the narrative in Holo & Veil into chapters. Unlike a book, these chapters are non-linear. They can be experienced in different orders, some can be skipped, and the events within them will change depending on the order they're experienced in. No matter the path the player takes, their story will always culminate to the same climactic moment.

Due to the non-linear narrative, dialog (in cutscenes, character conversations, and NPC interactions) had to be implemented in such a way to handle various possibilities, without the need to write large amounts of alternative scenarios. My solution was to use characters to figure out what information is know and what lines should be spoken during any given dialog conversation.

This is possible for two reasons:

• There are characters I know will always be in the player's party. These characters will always join the player on their adventure regardless of the path they take. They might join at different times, but they will eventually join because their story must conclude to reach the game's ending.

• There are optional characters that only join after key events. Many chapters features a character that will join the player's party for the remainder of the game if the chapter's story is progressed enough. 

With just these assumption in mind, dialog can be dynamically adjusted based on the characters currently in the player's party. If certain party members are present, certain sections of dialog will be added or skipped.

• Engage the Player way too Much. The player should always have something to do, just like in an action game. Sometimes thinking, sometimes reacting, always engaged.

• No Time Wasted. Animations should be short and to the point. UI should be responsive and enemy actions should be snappy.

• Endless Strategic Solutions. Battles are like a puzzle and the pieces are your characters, their equipment, and the enemies you face, leaving players with an endless number of combinations to experiment with.

• Ah... It Never Gets Old. After 15 hours of gameplay, battles should be just as interesting as they were 15 hours ago. Constantly introduce new enemies, new characters, new abilities, new items, and new equipment to keep things fresh. New parameters should be competitive with existing ones, never strictly better.

• What the Flip Was That? Battle should have an element of randomness, and feature hidden mechanics and synergies for the player to discover.

• Consistency. All UI should feel familiar using similar design patterns, shapes, controls, sounds, etc.

• Clarity. Information should be presented in an easily understood way. Color scheme, text size, and animations.

• Accessibility. Players should be able to quickly and easily retrieve any information they're looking for. About characters, enemies, mechanics, items, equipment, and the map.