Ariane Laferrière
As a designer, my main motivation is to build thrilling experiences and stimulating universes to bring extraordinary stories to life for players to enjoy. My dream is to have a direct impact on what players experience and feel in these adventures as a Level designer and Narrative designer.
Bubble Buds (2024)
LEVEL DESIGN
UNREAL ENGINE 5
MIRO
NOTION
Bubble Buds is a 3D coop puzzle prototype created for Ubisoft’s 2024 Game Lab Competition. In this competition, as a team of 8 university students, we had 10 weeks to create a prototype from beginning to end that would follow a theme, which was « Dream » and 7 constraints, such as « Bring an online multiplayer experience with a synchronous interaction mechanic » and « Include at least one mechanic govern by an AI ». At the end of the competition, we were nominated for 5 awards including « Best Prototype« , « Best Game Design » and « Best User Experience« .
In this prototype, I took on the role of puzzle-oriented level designer, UX designer and game designer. In these roles, I took on many responsibilities such as:
- Designing the player onboarding to the game.
- Designing the level puzzles.
- Applying the design thinking methodology from Celia Hodent in the prototype creation process (Hodent, 2020, Dans le cerveau du gamer : neurosciences et UX dans la conception de jeux vidéo).
- Creating a rigorous UX testing protocol to reiterate on the product and puzzles.
- Participating with my teamates on the design of the various mechanics.
Spirit Link (2024)
LEVEL DESIGN
UNREAL ENGINE 5
Spirit Link is a 3D puzzle-stealth single player game where you play a little girl and her newest friend, a little ghost, both at the same time. Together, the characters need to use their complementary mechanics to navigate a manor filled with Ghost Hunters and their gadgets without getting caught to go save the little ghost family.
In this prototype, I took on the role of project lead, game design, puzzle-oriented level designer, 3C designer and gameplay programmer. In these roles, I took on many responsibilities such as:
- Establishing the game design with my colleagues.
- Developing game mechanics.
- Creating 3 level segments to show the range of intensity that we want in a level.
- Establishment of an onboarding plan for the players.
- Creation of a game mechanics gym that doubles down as a tutorial to quickly learn controls in a First Playable Product.
Puzzle-oriented level design research (2024)
LEVEL DESIGN
UNREAL ENGINE 5
MIRO
NOTION
This prototype is a short puzzle-oriented level in which I applied a level design protocol build on my research in puzzle design as part of my specialization in this field. In this level, players have to find their way in a maze to three different interest-points to unlock the exit. In the maze, they can find projectiles to break colourful walls to pave their way to their goals.
This project was my first prototype as part of my specialization in puzzle-oriented level design that I began in my classes for my BAC in video game design. Its goal was to be a short level in which I applied the knowledge I acquired on making a level design for puzzle-oriented levels and applying a UX methodology on its production.
In short, I did:
- A short tutorial in a maze-type puzzle.
- Applied the puzzle design concepts of Jesse Schell (The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses, Second Edition, 2014) and Wallace Wang (The Structure of Game Design, 2023).
- Applied UX concepts learned in Celia Hodent’s book Dans le cerveau du gamer : neurosciences et UX dans la conception de jeux vidéo (2020).
Escape room (2024)
LEVEL DESIGN
UNREAL ENGINE 5
For this projet, I took a scene from the movie City of Ember (Kenan, 2008) as a source of inspiration to make a prototype of a puzzle-oriented level based on escape room mechanics. This project was made for my Level Design class in my BAC in video game conception.
In this 10 minutes escape room, we have an initial state, three differents puzzle, each with their own mechanic and one ending to the level.
My Little Puppet (2023)
DESIGN NARRATIF
TWINE
MIRO
NOTION
The Little Puppet is a Twine simulation for a potential narrative video game inspired by the game The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (Supermassive Games, 2022). It’s a short narrative game created for my screenwriting class made with two other designers.
In this project, I took part in:
- Analyzing the storyboard and gameplay of the game The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (Supermassive Games, 2022) to use it as a reference.
- Building a narrative and gameplay pitch, including a one-pager of the story and a summary of the 3-act breakdown.
- Designing the narrative bible including a backstory of the universe, a moodboard, a description of the main characters’ narrative arc, an actantial diagram and a 15-beats breakdown of the story.
- Building a narrative flowchart describing the various possible paths resulting from each decision made by the players.
- Integrating the story, choices and interactive elements to simulate the game’s story and potential gameplay in Twine.