The Vessel

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Expanded Concept & Design USP's

Many puzzle games allow users to control two characters separately, but very few allow for simultaneous control of two characters. This opens up a variety of possibilities for unique puzzle solving and level progression.

Overarching Design Problem (from testing)

One of the key design challenges was conveying a persistent sense of surveillance — the feeling that the characters were being observed by something beyond their understanding. As a solo project,  the game was deliberately scoped around a series of small, self-contained rooms that held different puzzle content. Conveying a sense that the players were being surveilled proved difficult within this linear, small world. 

How That Problem Was Tackled And Overcome

To solve this issue, I prioritised two things: firstly, I  prioritised the main camera as a primary storytelling tool by ensuring that the camera's position, field of view, and distance from the player felt like the user was observing the world through the perspective of a surveillance camera. The main camera was manipulated to distort the rooms surrounding the player, and its properties were further adjusted based on the size and rotation of each room, mirroring real-world surveillance setups where cameras maintain consistent placement in similar spaces but are reconfigured to account for larger or more complex environments.

The second priority was to give the user visibility to surrounding rooms. Drawing from the inspiration of a security guard sitting in their security control room, I wanted the world to be presented as a series of monitored spaces, allowing multiple rooms to be observed simultaneously while the player’s characters remain centred in the primary view. Combined with the aforementioned camera positional and FOV work, this approach positions the player as both observer and participant — simultaneously monitoring the environment and acting within it, whilst providing a more tangible gameplay benefit of generating intrigue at surrounding spaces that they had yet to explore