Mindscapes

A game set out with huge ambition, Mindscapes proved to be one of the most difficult projects I’ve worked on at UCSC. As a part of the Game Design Experience curriculum, we were prompted to create a complete project, alongside random teammates, within a 7-week sprint. The main goal being sprint-time management, professional production communication, and creation under a “Game Jam” style constraint: the game had to relate to the word “build” or “patch”.

My group and I aimed to make a game centered around the struggles of navigating mental health, which we chose to illustrate through a platformer. A journey of getting around “mental health enemies” by building new connections using our main character, Syd the Synapse.

Being in the driver’s seat with fewer developers, I knew immediately we had to reduce our narrative elements if we were going to have a polished and actually fun platformer by the end. Thus, I structured all my time on core-game mechanics that make a platformer great in my eyes: movement, level design, and the random “x-factor” mechanic(what I call a mechanic that directly sparks player creativity). Since we required some type of “build” or “patch” element incorporated, I thought to interpret “build” directly. What if you could build around mental health enemies instead of attacking them head-on? Similar to the coping mechanisms we are often taught around anxiety and depression in reality.

Thus, I focused on classic platformer movement and a build mechanism that would allow players to build platforms with various abilities around various mental health enemies. We created a challenging yet dynamic build platformer complete with original assets. Although the process was often frustrating, completing Mindscapes gave me the confidence to take the lead on production from a rough idea/theme into a playable game, artistically and technically.