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Samuel Garber
Game Designer
Circuit is a 3D, first-person physics-based puzzle-solving game where the player's goal is to pass through the levels to reach the command center of their abandoned space station via manipulating the panels in a level to bounce an energy ball into a receiver, opening the door forward. The game was made in five weeks in Michigan State University's Game Design and Development program and was considered to be the best game of the class by both fellow students and the instructors.
Download the game below:
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My job in this project was game and level design, so I created all of the puzzles and whiteboxed out the levels, created the tutorial, the difficulty progression, and directed how the mechanics of the game should function and feel.
I worked with the programmers to ensure that the energy orb that bounces around would maintain a perfect reflection off our panels and with our artists to make sure the game's aesthetic fit the theme of a space-station.
One of the biggest jobs I had was building the tutorial. I decided to use a combination of voice-overs and text overlays to describe the basics of the game, and used level design to try and make any hand-holding minimal. The first level immediately draws your eye to the pedestal in the center of the room, where you find a little remote, mentioned in the VO. This allows you to begin shooting the energy balls that open the door forward. The second tutorial forces you to go and get a telekinetic glove, which allows you to manipulate the panels. These two short levels provide the player the knowledge necessary for the rest of the game.
Pictured above is the fifth level of the game, which was the team's favorite. It was built around the centerpiece of the level, the station's nuclear reactor and the puzzle was created in a unique way compared to the others in the game.
Circuit was my first real team-made video game and was an amazing learning experience. The team perfectly nailed the scope of the game and it was a very smooth development experience. It also taught us the value of outside feedback, when the class playtest showed that the initial tutorial did not do its job that well. We learned from our playtests and in the end created a really awesome game.
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