Group industry project for a client: De Ontdekfabriek.
Ontdekfabriek is a playground for children to experience adventures with films and creative making workshops. Our assignment was to make a game for their mechanical dolphin which can be steered by children and have its motion reflected on the computer.
The game they used before had freedom of movement and a scoring system. This caused most people to get stuck and to worry about their score. For this game, they specifically did not want this to happen again.
Walking simulator, on-rails
1-3 players
Gameplay programmer
Game designer
PC, Ontdekfabriek dolphin
6 people
Unity, C#, Trello, Git
Project ranged from May 2022 -> June 2022 (~2 months)
You play as a dolphin on a track through a beautiful ocean floor. The dolphin is controlled by a real mechanical dolphin which children can use to steer. Along the way the dolphin can collect crates, swim through hoops, or take alternative routes.
Control the dolphin through beautiful caves and gorgeous reefs. You're not always on the same set path as there are tons of options to go explore wherever you want:
Curious about a little gap in the cave walls? Why not explore it!
Excited to see the underwater tornado up close? Go for it!
The game is meant to be played on a big mechanical dolphin at the Ondekfabriek. Different weights, strenghts or just the aging of components might require some configuration to be tweeked.
While swimming along the ocean floor you'll find crates and hoops. There is no scoring system, but swimming into these will create confetti!
During development I focused on gameplay programming and other technical aspects. This also included testing other people's features, extending their work and fixing bugs.
Dolly-based track movement
Track switching
Bug fixing
C# / Unity programming
Together with the team I worked on the general design of the game and revisions based on client feedback.
Overall game's design
This was my first time working for a client to create a game. They gave us a lot of freedom, but there were specific features they did and didn't want even if we thought they would fit in well. Because of this I learned a lot about working together with the client to create a game that they want and you can be proud of.
SCRUM way of working
Working for a client to make a game