PROJECT
Edge of Samsara is my year two project for BA Games Design & Art from the University of Southampton.
The goal was to create a professional game design document showcasing the game's concepts and core mechanics and hand it to other people to make small playable prototypes.
Role: Game Designer, Narrative Designer, Concept Artist, Musician
Duration: 3 months
Tools: Game Design Document, Microsoft Teams/Excel/Word, Sibelius 7, Cubase, Adobe Photoshop/Illustration, Procreate
EXPERIENCE
To have the feeling of overcoming demons from an unbalanced environment.
GAMEPLAY
Players are playing as a Tibetan monk, Lhalung Palgyi Dorje, to overcome personal demons in ancient Tibet (historical fiction).
The map covers the east part of Tibet: Ningma, Kham and Amdo. The game will have multiple landforms, including mountains, forests, prairies, lakes and snow areas. Different region has different temperature and weather system.
The game has five main mechanics, and the Karma system is the core mechanic. It forms the foundation for the other mechanics and helps them to link to each other.
This idea came from the theory of Samsara: The more good karma you get, the better realm you will achieve after losing your physical form.
However, I made the Karma system into numerical value instead to separate my game from those choice-based games (Good karma gives players good endings, bad karma gives players bad ends).
For more details about the gameplay mechanics & systems please see here:
CONCEPTS
From the prairies to the mountain, village to city, sunny to snowing, dogs to yaks, the game provides a lively world for players to experience. The game world is historical fiction; therefore, players will be able to learn and understand deeply about ancient Tibetan culture. Various landmarks are based on an actual map from 838 A.D. to 842 A.D., which provides beautiful, realistic and mysterious environments for players to explore.
For more details about the game concepts please see here:
USP
There is a lack of open-world games set in ancient eastern countries, which provides me with an opportunity to introduce an eastern culture through my game.
The game world provides players with a semi-realistic environment, with creatures that only exist in Tibetan mysteries. Players will discover the hidden secrets and use the power of Buddhism to redeem extreme situations.
Five mechanics in the game are tight to create a highly completed open world system, which lets players intensely experience the concept of conflicts between humans and demons, royal house and religions, Buddhism and Bon.
