Role
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the Wind and the wisp
3D alt control adventure game
Team
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Technical Designer
Technical Art
30+ members
5 teams
Unity (C#)
Photoshop
1 year
2024-25
Timeline
-
Tools
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This is an adventure game about two best friends: One who has passed away and awakens as a ghost in a broken garden, and one who is still alive and misses their friend dearly.
Players control both characters simultaneously. Wisp, the ghost, is controlled through keyboard and mouse input, while Wind, a petal-like breeze, is controlled using the player’s breath through the microphone. Together, by collecting flowers with unique blow-activated mechanics, they gradually restore the broken garden one flower at a time.
Directed by Sammy Chuang, Design team led by Bernice Wang
Timeline
Team
Role
Tool
1 year (2024-25)
30+ members, 5 teams
Technical Designer, Technical Artist
Unity (C#), Photoshop
I joined the design team after pre-production, when character design, one level design, and the core experience goals were already defined.
Given that players control two characters simultaneously, and are meant to feel like the Wind more than the Wisp, my role focused on designing and implementing the core interaction loop around embodied wind interaction.
Problems
However, players often don’t immediately internalize that they ARE the wind. They see blowing as a tool, not an identity.
Tasks & design goal
As a technical designer, my design tasks focused on wind interaction (player blowing into the microphone and creating wind):
Fast prototype, implement, and iterate on the wind feature in collaboration with engineering and art.
Design the gamefeel of wind output (the visual look and interaction feedback), making people feel like the wind.
How can the 3Cs inform player as the Wind alonside the Wisp, and guide the interaction design?
Concepting
Wind playground and engine prototypes
Prototypes
Wind has emotions
Wind can inform level specific mechanics, showing power in different ways
(They can help, can mess up, like real friends)
Wind has momentum
Global wind
Wind’s all-time presence
Pat-pat wind
Wind as reward
Hide-and-seek wind
Wind as hint feature
Lock down core wind types, iterate on features, and add gamefeel
Playtest & Iteration
Production: Playtest tracker made by Sammy Chuang
Global wind: Wind as present around Wisp all the time. Blowing feels like an outward motion, so we added a vignette and pushed the camera out a little.
Development Process
Hide-and-seek wind: Wind as hint feature that leads to POI (eg. A swing set)
Concept art by Tian Yang
Dandelion wind: A core metaphor for blowing, teleports player to explore different area
Early prototype by Sammy Chuang
Helper Wind: Wind has the power to help break things and clear the way
