Luminaria
A leisurely and vibrant 2D platformer made in Unity.
Overview
Website: https://dariaboudreau.itch.io/luminaria
Engine: Unity
My Role: Game Designer
Summary of Responsibilities
• create and iterate on level designs
• document and analyze game design
• program additional gameplay elements
• implement cutscenes and scripted sequences
• collaborate with teammates to implement and iterate on gameplay ideas
Luminaria is a fantasy platformer with light puzzle elements. I joined the Luminaria team in the second half of development, primarily as a level designer. I helped to move the team's vision forward in level, systems, and narrative design.
← Luminaria Trailer
Advocating for the Player
When I joined Luminaria, the team was very art oriented with no active designers. At this point, the game had a variety of technical and design problems which I was quick to fix.
Collider Issues
A recurring issue was colliders which were improperly shaped or scaled. Often times, these colliders reflected the art but were not conducive to the gameplay. I often advocated and was able to refine the gameplay of the levels so that these issues were no longer present. This ensured a more immersive experience for players.
Light and Design
Luminaria also made heavy use of light sources in its levels. Part of my role was ensuring that these lights were not only being used to be visually pleasing but also had design thought behind their placement. For example, using light to draw the player's attention to a platform that they can jump on or to lead the player towards a certain area.
Process Document →
Vibrant Cinematics
Part of my role in Luminaria was implementing various cutscenes and scripted sequences throughout the game.
Introduction Cutscene
One example is a cutscene which I implemented at the beginning of the first level. This cutscene was exported as an video file which we wanted to align with certain events which could be done in Unity's sequencing system, Timelines. An additional challenge was that the most typical way to implement a cutscene in Unity is by using a render texture, which necessitates a 3D object. Because 3D objects don't expose their render layer to the Unity editor by default, there was no guarantee that the cutscene would render on top of the other objects in the scene.
Setting up this cutscene required me to create a few scripts: one which would allow me to change the render layer of the 3D object and one which would ensure that the video cutscene and the sequencer were being played at the same rate.
← Process Document