Half Away puzzle game

To ensure clarity and consistency, I designed a color system that ties directly into both mechanics and narrative. Colors are not just aesthetic, but a language the player learns to read across the game.

Each type carries a clear meaning:

      • Gold, the game’s core identity color, highlights puzzles and key points of interest.

      • Blue marks key lore objects, unlocking lore pages and enriching worldbuilding.

      • Green is tied to teleports and transitions between areas.

      • Red signals blocked or inactive elements.

The palette reinforces affordances and reduces ambiguity, supporting an intuitive experience tailored to our cozy audience.

Interacting with objects generates Diary entries with lore, worldbuilding, and subtle puzzle hints, enriching the experience for cozy players who usually enjoy exploring and reading.

To further enhance the main mechanic, Resonance is supported by two additional systems designed with the target audience in mind:

As support, the Helper provides fully optional narrative details and puzzle tips; players can activate it with a key or ignore it entirely, based on their playstyle.

3 rune stones must be rotated with Resonance and aligned within a specific angular range, but they slowly return to their original position when released.

• Players must synchronize all 3 stones at the same time using sound cues.

• The reset creates pressure, blending coordination with rhythmic pacing.

• Forgiving angle buffers keep the challenge fair and readable.

Design Focus: Merging musical timing and real time coordination to evolve Resonance into a skill based auditory challenge.

This endgame puzzle tests mastery of Resonance, combining timing, positioning, and state switching under pressure.

• Patrol enemies are visible and freeze when Resonance is active.

• Dormant enemies are invisible, but awaken through Resonance.

• Enemies move faster than the player, demanding precise rhythm and awareness.

Design Focus: A reactive, high tension challenge where survival depends on mastering Resonance and adapting to shifting enemy states.

• Red: correct position.

• Yellow: rotation flow. 

• White: rotation rails

The goal is to reach the center of the area without being trapped.

• Straying from safe platforms triggers roots that "kills" you.

• Track an invisible NPC by sound; listening slows you, so progress depends on alternating between awareness and movement.

• The NPC shifts pace and direction, demanding rhythm, timing, and quick decisions.

Design Focus: A pacing break built around audio pursuit and movement tradeoffs. Iterated through playtesting to refine difficulty, reducing excessive sound layers into a clearer, fairer challenge.

The finale breaks expectations at the game’s peak, shifting from mechanical play into a text driven confrontation built entirely around choice.

A familiar NPC is revealed as the god of the Spirit Realm, and the battle unfolds through branching decisions leading to failure or one of two endings. Instead of reflexes, it tests morality and the weight of past actions.

Design Focus: A deliberate tonal rupture, unsettling yet fitting, leaning strongly into narrative design to leave a bittersweet sense of closure.

Using Resonance in any menu triggers a hidden background, reinforcing consistency between mechanics and presentation.

The original scope was larger, but I redesigned it into a compact one-shot experience to ensure focus and finishability.

Presented at 5 conventions, where I refined my ability to observe player behavior firsthand and adjust game design accordingly.

The final development phase over Christmas had me and another designer crunching daily until the 28th, gaining firsthand experience in high-pressure, intensive development.

I fully programmed, implemented, and designed the entire finale fight.