Untame Spaces
OVERVIEW
UntameSpaces is an educational game made for the Singapore Science Centre by Sqkii. This is UNTAME's 3rd run and it continues to empower an educating discovery of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and how their convergence with Arts and Humanities helps drive critical solutions for navigating a post-pandemic world by transforming spaces.
MY ROLE
Game Design Intern
THE TEAM
Jonas Yeo - Game Design Lead
Leanne Tan - Deputy Game Designer
TIMELINE
Aug 2022 - Oct 2022
CAMPAIGN LENGTH
Oct 2022 - Dec 2022
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
When I joined the team at the time, the main mechanics of the game were already put in place and decided by the client, I mostly worked on the game towards the later stages of development. That being said, my responsibilities on this project focused mainly on the UX Side as well as testing. Some responsibilities include:
• Placing assets and designing biomes
• Level Design and Balancing for snake-like games
• Balancing and QA testing for the Wack-a-mole game
• Social Media Management (Answering questions about the game or crediting players with free items)
• Sourcing BGM and SFX for the game which match the look, feel and mechanics
I have also worked on the #2023 version of Untame, which i played more of the role of a hands on designer, however details have yet to be released about that project. We looked at the results of this campaign and using feedback from players, we have significantly improved the next MVP of the game since.
Game Details
#UNTAMEspaces picks up where #UNTAMEReboot2021 left off... The player STEMlings are back in the future, from the past! With their future transformed into a lush paradise, the player STEMlings are now faced with the daunting new task of claiming their new world and turning it into their home. The players complete missions and explore the different biomes with the goal of obtaining enough in-game currency (Space Crystals) to exchange for their desired prizes.
Some of the standardised missions include Mini-Games, Video Quizzes and other physical activities. The two types of mini-games, Whack-a-Mole Mini-game (Digital Mission 17) and Snake Mini-game (Digital Mission 18) were primarily what I worked on. In each different biome, players are able to encounter both the Whack-a-Mole and Snake Mini-Game, so I worked to scale the difficulty, either via level design placement or number of enemies and types, as well as strenuous testing and math to balance the conditions for rewards depending on what biome players were in.
