Malisense
A 2D top-down dungeon crawler game where players fight to restore what was taken.
Malisense is developed by Game Design and Art Collaboration (GDA), a student-based game development organization at UC Santa Cruz.
Set in a world consumed by the Malignance, a powerful entity that has stripped its victims of their senses, you play as the Disgraced, one of the last survivors struggling to reclaim your home. Navigate a ruined village where former villagers have been transformed into sense-bound beasts, solve environmental puzzles, and seek out sacred artifacts to restore what was lost.
My role as Design Lead was to craft an engaging and immersive player experience, ensuring every interaction, puzzle, and environment told a story.
Type
Game developed by GDA
Team
60+ student developers
Timeline
Jan 2024 - June 2024
Role
Design Lead
Methods
UI/UX Design, Wireframing, Prototyping
Tools
Unity, Excalidraw, Figma, Google Docs
Designing the Player’s Journey: Scene Flow and Gameplay Loop
Overall scene flow of the game.
Core gameplay loop.
Controls Design
Controls guideline for the game.
Village Design: Building a World That Tells a Story
Reference: Darkest Dungeon
Brainstorm
Brainstorm of the village layout using whiteboard.
Early village screen.
Dungeon and Puzzle Design: Challenging the Players
Floor 1
Overall layout of Dungeon Floor 1.
Legend/Key and format of the layout.
Main layout of Floor 1.
Floor 2
Overall layout of Floor 2.
Legend/Key of Floor 2.
Sample room designs of Floor 2.
Challenges & Solutions: Playtests and Iterations
As a Design Lead, I had to moderate many, many playtests. I believe the key to ultimately making a good game is playtesting, and I got to do just that from the first prototype of the game to the finalized iteration.