Game introduction
Vessel is a multi-perspective puzzle game where you harness the power of object swapping to carve your path forward. Immerse yourself in the exploration of a forgotten underwater civilization, unveiling its mysteries as you navigate its intricate and atmospheric world.
My Responsibility
As the level designer for Vessel, my primary responsibilities include:
Designing Puzzles – Crafting engaging puzzles that utilize the shard mechanic for object swapping or shards, ensuring intuitive and rewarding player interactions.
Balancing Puzzle Difficulty – Structuring a gradual learning curve by introducing mechanics in progressive difficulty tiers, culminating in complex, multi-layered challenges.
Additionally, I support:
Implementing Camera Transitions – Ensuring smooth perspective shifts to enhance clarity and gameplay.
Structuring Exploration – Designing layouts that guide players naturally through the world.
Enhancing Environmental Storytelling – Integrating narrative elements into level design for a more immersive experience.
Gameplay Video
Design process
The design process for swapping puzzles in Vessel follows a structured progression, beginning with prototyping in Minecraft and Unity before full implementation in Unreal Engine. The goal is to create a learning curve where each puzzle introduces a new mechanic in a controlled environment, gradually increasing complexity until players can masterfully combine all learned skills in a final challenge.
Design process
Design process
Early-stage prototyping begins in Minecraft, where simple block-based layouts help visualize spatial relationships and test puzzle flow. Using Minecraft’s mechanics, we simulate object swapping by moving marked blocks, allowing quick iteration on puzzle structure and visibility challenges. Once a concept proves engaging, I shift to Unity to create interactive prototypes with basic swapping mechanics, focusing on camera behavior, object interactions, and player guidance. This step helps refine timing, difficulty, and readability before committing to full development in Unreal Engine.
Design process
Design process
Each puzzle in Vessel introduces a slightly new feature, ensuring players understand mechanics before facing greater complexity. The first set of puzzles teaches the basics of swapping, such as requiring both the swappable object and water ball to be visible under the swappable camera before executing a swap. As players progress, new challenges arise, such as obstacles blocking visibility, time-sensitive swaps, or needing to manipulate multiple objects in sequence. Each mechanic is structured into three difficulty tiers, gradually increasing the number of steps or precision required.
Design process
Once the mechanics and difficulty progression are validated, puzzles are fully implemented in Unreal Engine with polished visuals, effects, and environmental storytelling. The final and most difficult puzzles combine all learned mechanics, requiring players to think strategically and execute complex swaps efficiently. This ensures that by the end of the game, players have fully internalized Vessel’s core mechanics, making the final challenges feel rewarding and earned.
Game Scenes
