Sweet Escape
A candy themed, riddle solving maze game where players uncover a dark narrative.
Teamwork
Sweet Escape was a student project where I managed a team of undergraduates to produce a playable game on unity in four weeks.
Ideation
Sweet Escape began as a simple maze project; the Candy Witch traps the player in a candy maze they have to solve to escape.
Sweet Escape would would spark joy via its candy themed aesthetic and artwork.
I took things a step further and suggested a subtle, dark narrative to make the game more appealing to an older audience.
The Game
The player navigates a 3-D maze looking for characters who give hints about how the Candy Witch became a witch.
At the end of each level the candy witch asks a question. The hints should reveal the answer and by the end of the game player should be able to guess at the Candy Witches dark backstory.
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Spoiler: She was a candy maker whose children tragically perished when they fell into the largest pot of candy ever made. After accidentally eating the candy her children died in, she looses her mind and creates the candy maze.
Design Process
Our mood boards took inspiration from popular candy art and vintage cartoons. We wanted a bright, fun, pastel aesthetic to distract from our dark plot line in the narrative.
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I designed the mazes and levels, which needed to feel difficult enough in gameplay but in reality were very simple as the player cannot view them from above..
Art Assets
I wanted to create an enjoyable visual experience within the scope of our time frame and team member skill sets.
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Our team had some very good digital artists, and we were able to fully utilize their skills by structuring the game visually as a 2-D world.
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Additionally, the 2-D world added to our narrative of falling out of the regular world and into the fabricated candy land, where we don't belong.
Visual Design
Each level within the maze is its own distinct maze with its own style.
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We explored a candy forrest, escaped a gingerbread house, and finally discover and ice castle while solving an ice cream land maze.
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Players who answer riddles wrong start over at the beginning of the game.
Sweet Escape Final Assets
Next Steps
Limited time to place art assets in Unity resulted in randomly placed assets that could be adjusted to look more deliberate; especially indoors.
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Final playtesting also revealed the narrative was perhaps too subtle - while players understood something unfortunate had happened, they didn't quite grasp the full story we were aiming for.
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Further refinement would benefit this game significantly. With Sweet Escape fully refined, I would next choose to create additional levels and sequels fleshing out the narrative further.
