Concept

From a 3rd person view, the player controls a ship that automatically moves forward and has to move from one lane to another, in order to stay on the path to reach the end of the level.

Music has a key role in Sound Slide, as its rhythm guides the player through the level design.

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Challenges​

• Create clear and good-looking assets to form immersive environments.

• Allow the player to recognize the level he is playing in without dwelling on the details.

• Find a credible way of interconnecting every level in order to give the player a long-term stake.

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Solutions​

• Since nobody in the group is a game artist, I volunteered to become environment artist and saw this opportunity as a way to learn more about 3D modeling. Because of my lack of experience, the obvious choice was to create low-poly assets, plus it satisfied  our intentions : making distinctive environments without going into too much details. I worked on Blender and improved very quickly by myself, which allowed me to find a smooth workflow and provide numerous and diverse assets that fitted specifically for every level. This role allowed me to have a better appreciation of the connection between art and game design. For instance, I understood that during demanding sequences, using assets the player has already seen allowed him not to linger too much on them, so his focus would be entirely on the lanes. Another example was the way I could adjust the gamefeel depending on the position of my setting. If I wanted to create a fast, nervous segment, creating a closed and narrow ​driveway with small assets would enhance the feeling of speed. On the other hand, some bits of the level were much easier, and it allowed me to make a contemplative break by expanding the area. To do so, I simply increased the distance between the scenery and the lanes as well as the size of the environment to give a sense of gigantism.

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• At the beginning of production, we decided to choose a global idea in which each level of the game would fit in so as to ease the creation of level design, sound design and assets by placing some guidelines in our workflow. We ended up settling for the "World Tour" theme that seemed like an obvious choice : each level represents a country and influences several factors : firstly the music which is composed with typical instruments, the environment showcases the most unique elements (monuments, nature and architecture) of the country and the level design matches the said architecture of the country. To put it in a nutshell, every aspect of the game is designed to make the player instantly know where he is without having to read the level's name.

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