Salim Mohammed
Game Designer
Puggy Runner
Development Info:
Development time: 2/3 weeks
Release Date: August,10th,2022
Platform: Android
Single Player
Contributions:
Lead Designer
Level Designer
UI and UX Designer
Sound Designer
Game Concept
Puggy Runner is a game that focuses on fast player reaction times to approaching obstacles and distractions. The player takes the role of Puggy the dog, to race the Evil Possiuem to the food bowl, a food bowl left by Puggy's owner and he must reach it at any cost. The game is to be enjoyed by all ages as it's a good way to pass time and a massive enjoyment to look at.
Lead Designer
This was the first game I had the lead designer role in. I was grouped with an artist and a programmer to work on Puggy Runner. I was checking on my programmer and artist constantly making sure they understood the idea of the game. I always made sure to have them feel comfortable asking questions about anything in the game. If they had any ideas that can progress the game at a faster pace or an idea that can be implemented into the game.
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Some suggestions given to me by my team were implemented as the lead designer for the Puggy Runner I believed it would make the game much more enjoyable for the player and enhance their experience, but some ideas seemed like they were diving away from the original idea of the game and they were rejected and explained to the team member on why it won't fit the style/idea of the game.
Level Desginer
The game was meant to be finished within a time limit of around 2 to 3 weeks. As the lead level designer for the Puggy Runner, I decided to make the levels simple to make it easier for the artist to add assets and not overwhelm them with the amount of time that we had.
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I was capable of producing 15 levels in total and I was more than happy with the result, with the time frame that was given and the amount that came out. The levels are laid out in a simple manner for anyone who picks up the game would understand how to play,
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All the levels have varying levels of difficulty, but the main point I kept in my mind when making all those levels is that, is the level fair for the player, and is the game fun for a casual audience. From testing the game and giving it to the Mini Mammoth group to test I believe the levels were balanced well for casual gamers.
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UI and UX Designer
When working on the UI for Puggy Runner a major issue I faced was the placement of the UI in-game. I had to make sure the meter for both puggy and the possum was visible without disturbing the player.
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After Many tests and trying to put it in different locations, I settled on putting it on top of the screen. I noticed that when we had testers playing they would look up as the characters are running upward to the screen. After changing the positions the testers said they noticed the difference and it made the game much more enjoyable, and t made it much easier to keep up with the game. I developed the UI for the main menu and the in-game UI. Working with the programmer on the functionality for the in-game UI and making the main menu UI on my own.
We took the game to be tested by the Mini Mammoth Games team and they noticed a bunch of bugs and issues that we took note of. After the testing session, the team went back to fix a lot of bugs and made some of the levels easier as some of them were nearly impossible to win. This isn't what we were looking for in Puggy Runner, so we dialed back the difficulty on some of the levels, and fixed all the major bugs and problems with the game.
Sound Designer
Thinking of different sounds to include in Puggy Runner wasn't difficult. I kept on looking at the art style of the game, and from there I decided to make all the sounds hyper and exciting. When testing the game with the music and the different SFX sounds for Puggy barking and the different obstacles, all the sounds from the music to the SFX came in amazingly together and it fit everything we aimed for in Puggy Runner, an exciting casual game.
All the sounds used in Puggy Runner were copyright-free online and in Mini Mammoth Games sound folders. All the audio tracks were altered and edited, to give the game a unique sound behind it.
Game Concpet