Build an Illusion
2025
Build an Illusion
Febuary 2025
Co-created wih Mia Sun
Created using Unity Game Engine and Procreate
On a more conceptual level, I kept thinking about second order design in so many different angles, ranging from how we can tell a story through our game, to pac man's appeal to girls, to theatre's sensorial "magic circle," to poker's social deception. As such, I really loved coming up with a story even with so many technical limitations. I had an initial idea to incorporate optical illusions that would create a false sense of movement in our game, and kept coming back to the question of "why." Eventually, when we decided to "build an illusion" instead of "destroying an illusion," I came up with a concept inspired by Susana Clarke's novel, Piranesi, and the musical/ movie/ book Cabaret.
Our little guy is a construction worker for a larger corporation, as evident in the scene just above the puzzle. I purposefully chose encouraging effects for the progression of the puzzle (confetti, sparkles, and satisfying noises), and hid suspicious notes of this construction company in the draft-like background that guides the puzzle. At the end, once you've finally had a second to think about what you're doing , you realize how it's not so much of a good thing that you've been making this illusion. Our little guy horrifically dies, and you're left to consider what you've done, and the glitches that appear in tandem with the illusion appear to be spinning. Perhaps it wasn't a good thing to be constructing this image that hurts your head to look at.
The way players go about pushing the blocks (especially stuck blocks), whether that's through a running start, flipping them, etc. brings in elements of choice and autonomy that facilitate emergence. If the user hesitates to pick up an object, or is very fast and confident about pushing their puzzle pieces, there will be different experiences with the game. Yet, emergence was intentionally limited in other ways, since you're meant to be blindly following these rules and in fact are rewarded for doing so.
Febuary 2025
Co-created wih Mia Sun
Created using Unity Game Engine and Procreate
On a more conceptual level, I kept thinking about second order design in so many different angles, ranging from how we can tell a story through our game, to pac man's appeal to girls, to theatre's sensorial "magic circle," to poker's social deception. As such, I really loved coming up with a story even with so many technical limitations. I had an initial idea to incorporate optical illusions that would create a false sense of movement in our game, and kept coming back to the question of "why." Eventually, when we decided to "build an illusion" instead of "destroying an illusion," I came up with a concept inspired by Susana Clarke's novel, Piranesi, and the musical/ movie/ book Cabaret.
Our little guy is a construction worker for a larger corporation, as evident in the scene just above the puzzle. I purposefully chose encouraging effects for the progression of the puzzle (confetti, sparkles, and satisfying noises), and hid suspicious notes of this construction company in the draft-like background that guides the puzzle. At the end, once you've finally had a second to think about what you're doing , you realize how it's not so much of a good thing that you've been making this illusion. Our little guy horrifically dies, and you're left to consider what you've done, and the glitches that appear in tandem with the illusion appear to be spinning. Perhaps it wasn't a good thing to be constructing this image that hurts your head to look at.
The way players go about pushing the blocks (especially stuck blocks), whether that's through a running start, flipping them, etc. brings in elements of choice and autonomy that facilitate emergence. If the user hesitates to pick up an object, or is very fast and confident about pushing their puzzle pieces, there will be different experiences with the game. Yet, emergence was intentionally limited in other ways, since you're meant to be blindly following these rules and in fact are rewarded for doing so.