2D Puzzle Adventure Game that Explores a Fallen King Retaking Their Bird Kingdom From a Deadly Disease
Current Trailer
The Song of Maka
2D Puzzle Adventure
ONGOING PROJECT
The Song of Maka is mine and Silverjay Studio’s main project focus. Starting from concept sketches between two lovers of Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, it quickly translated into a platformer/puzzle-solving passion project with a four-year timeline and 15 members working on this game weekly.
This ongoing 2D Puzzle Adventure game without combat focuses on a unique universe with birds as its main species. The story is based on an exiled king who lost all his feathers on a journey to redeem their family and the kingdom. Our game stands out from other 2D sidescrollers as it focuses on puzzle solving rather than killing enemies. Many boss battles require using your abilities to interact with the environment through puzzle mechanics introduced to the player in the world and defeat the boss.
My Contributions:
Scouted and hired 15 members for the studio.
Collaborated with fellow designers on all design documents related to this project using Notion.
Implemented Sprints and Kanban (especially using Scrum) using Notion to facilitate 15 team members’ workflow and pipeline.
Created UI/UX elements for the game through Procreate and Adobe Suite (Photoshop and Illustrator for assets, After Effects, Xd, and Premiere Pro for promotional activities).
Designed alongside Keyi Li for all UI Mockups with Figma, Unity and Illustrator.
Participated in weekly meetings and assigned tasks to every member through Notion.
Oversaw level, environmental, character, and art asset creation while drawing assets alongside my fellow artists using Procreate and Photoshop.
Completed monthly checkups with 15 members to understand their interpersonal dynamics.
Designed each level's main mechanics and storyline alongside my fellow designer.
Created design briefs and pitch decks for Ubisoft and Bilibili, beginning commercialization talks regarding the publishing rights.
Utilized Tinylytics for monthly playtest Excel reports to assess UX, clarify user stories, and balance in-game data.
Organized a 3-month iterative sprint process using Scrum to guide the studio in acquiring Best Game Overall at CUSGA 2024 and Best Student Game at indiePlay China 2024.
Presented the game at GDC 2023 at the State of New York booth.
Song of Maka Title Screen
Introduction CG Screenshot
Gameplay Loop
Initially, the team was inspired by the flourishing 2D Metroidvania market that saw the success of Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, etc. However, we recognized early on in our development process that our strengths come from a unique visual style and our designers’ abilities to create immersive puzzles, which allowed us to take a leap of faith and fully commit to a 2D adventure game focused purely on puzzle solving.
The Beginning:
Sketches about the world of our game.
Brief character designs.
Environmental designs.
Our studio hand-rigged every character while intertwining frame-by-frame animation when the circumstance allows.
Level Design for each significant map segment.
The main character was even used as a placeholder.
The images below were fully decorated white boxes that the studio had completed by the freshman university.
Pre-Production Concept Phase:
CUSGA National College Games Competition 2022 & 2024 and indiePlay China 2024:
One of the most competitive and popular game design competitions in China, sponsored by Tencent.
We decided to participate as Silverjay Studio, testing our performance versus experienced developers.
Won Best Visuals Runner-Up and was interviewed by WePlay magazine in 2022.
But this wasn’t enough; we strive to be the best.
After an entire system rehaul, we entered the competition again in 2024, feeling more confident than ever.
After a more mature and holistic design approach and an increased focus on our strengths with more content than ever, we won Best Game Overall in 2024 with a Best Narrative Nomination. (1st place out of 500+ game entries and 2000+ competitors) as well as Best Student Game Award at indiePlay China 2024.
Chinese Studio Members Receiving Best Game Overall at CUSGA 2024
Silverjay Studio Presenting The Song of Maka @ ChinaJoy
The Progress (11/15/2024):
75% Developed, 10 hours of playtime.
We have 3 Fully-Developed Regions with fleshed-out mechanics.
There are 60+ Unique Scenes to explore.
Project wikis are created for the onboarding process for new members, project briefs, pitches, timelines, narrative designs, and playtest documents/interview templates.
We will show an updated commercial demo at NYU Winter Showcase on 12/13/2024
We are on track for official release at Steam Winter 2025.
Remaking Forest of Eagle boss battle (Map #2) to be puzzle-solving only.
50+ NPCs, 30+ Craftable/Collectible items.
7 game systems implemented in UIs.
We have 10+ Original Soundtracks and 2 hand-drawn cutscenes.
The Protagonist Flying mechanic is implemented.
Currently designing the 5th Map level (Crescent Moon Heights) and level mechanics.
Fully functioning in-game achievement system with over 50+ achievements.
The main quest/narrative design for Floral Skylands and Crescent Moon Heights (Maps #4 & #5) is finished.
The Song of Maka Promotional Images
Platforming/Puzzle Solving Demo (12/2023)
In-Game Screenshots (11/13/2024):
Cave Level Elevator System
Parkour Challenge System
Realtime CG
Puzzle Mechanic Showcase
Main Hub Area
Floral Skyland
Unity Engine Screenshot
Hidden Area Discovered
Hidden Treasure Discovered
What We Are Working On (11/15/2024):
Finalizing the 5th out of the 7 maps - Crescent Moon Heights
Implemented 6 game mechanics for the level:
Shockwave
Aurora Trail
Light & Darkness
Gacha Machine
Totem
Imitator
50+ new art assets (collectibles, NPCs, level mechanic assets, platforms, etc.)
Fully white-boxed 8 unique scenes within the 5th map.
New Environmental Assets
New Reusable Location Assets
New NPCs
Crescent Heights Underworld White Box
Crescent Heights Overworld White Box
My Production Role:
In addition to the contributions that I listed within my responsibilities. I have attached multiple reports and templates that highlight parts of the project wiki that help each team member understand the project pipeline.
The entire project production pipeline as of 2023 Q4
An example of the first level pipeline designed on Figma
An example of our sprint backlog
A Kanban of all the tasks in a sprint
User stories for each level-specific function
Communication plan between team members
An overview of all the playtest/QA test plans for qualitative & quantitative analysis
For each major QA test, this bug report template will be implemented
We use Tinylytics (An Unity plugin) to see average playtester's metrics when beating a boss or the time it took to enter a scene
We then analyze those data and see which parts of the game/item values need to be adjusted for balancing character growth
Checking basic functions - this usually happens right before a showcase or a competition
At the end of the semester, we will analyze all of the data from previous playtests or development and summarize it into a report to set goals in the next semester
My UI/UX Role:
Although I am not an official UI/UX designer on the team, I’ve always had a graphic/UI design background. My most recent contribution to the UI/UX elements of The Song of Maka is the redesign of the feather equipment system.
Slot Differential Partitioning State at a Glance:
Switching between Collected menus:
After clicking, the detailed information of the currently selected item is displayed.
After clicking, the previous slot selection is canceled and the information on the right side switches to the currently selected feather.
Click on Quick Equip again:
After selecting and clicking again, the current slot will change to [pre-equipped] state, at this time the player can click to equip to the first equipment column empty space.
If the player selects a slot in the equipment column, the player will equip it to the selected slot.
If there is another equipped feather in the slot, it will be replaced.
If there are no empty slots and no equipped slots are selected, some form of error message or disabled state is displayed - depends on which is better to implement
Click on any empty area outside the slot to cancel the pre-equipped state and return to the selected state
Mockup Demo:
Final Mockup:
The Future:
Several maps/levels have yet to be started, but we expect to finish them by the end of this school year.
We want the best experience for the players; our official release date is on Steam around Winter 2025.
We wish to participate in more competitions to showcase such projects - we will continue to participate in CUSGA 2025, local game jams, NYU Game Center Showcases, etc.
Preparing an application for the NYU Game Incubator Program.
Preparing IP applications, LLC registration, steam pages, etc.
Negotiate with publishers to ready for publishing.
Currently developing social media accounts (e.g. BiliBili) for devlogs of this game.