About Space Hamlet
Space Hamlet is a 2D, point-and-click puzzle game where you play as Captain Blake (They/Them), the head of a group of space explorers who have just entered a ruined castle on a seemingly abandoned planet. The group split up, Blake was ambushed and killed by an evil phantom haunting the fortress, and now they are determined to help their crew escape from beyond the grave.
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Initially created for a Code Coven project based on the themes "Haunted," "Dark-Side," and "Hero," Space Hamlet—my first published game created in Unity—was transformed during the Bit-Byte Game Jam into a fuller version of its original debut (seen at the bottom of this page). Through this game, the player will connect with Blake and their team in their efforts to escape. It is up to the player to navigate the haunted castle to solve puzzles that will lead the space explorers out.
What I Did on This Project
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Collaborated with Chris Biagini for the initial lore of the game (introduction scene and worldbuilding)
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Collaborated with Lou Freire on level design creation using Miro (See Level Design Screenshots here)
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Wrote all dialogue and text using Ink software in Unity (10 pages total; Excerpts of Writing Here)
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Repurposed old Visual Studio scripts for timer and audio mechanics
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Tracked progress using Miro and Trello for a visual representation of our schedule and tasks
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Organized and ran biweekly playtests with Lou Freire to improve player game experience
What Makes Space Hamlet Unique
The most unique part of Space Hamlet is the most obvious: it's not a primarily text game using Twine, but a Unity game made up of actual visuals and gameplay! With Lou Freire's amazing programming and artistic skills and Chris Biagini's narrative mind, we were able to craft an intriguing story with interesting puzzle mechanics, something I had never been able to accomplish before. Additionally, the rules of the Bit-Byte Game Jam placed more of a challenge that I had not experienced yet with my other work.
Learning and Growing
While this is not my first game ever made in Unity, it was the first that had changed so much from start to where it is today. It was the first time I consciously went through each step of the concept-to-launch pipeline with any of the games I had made before. It was the first time I used Jira and Miro as tools. Space Hamlet was a lot of firsts, but those new experiences were able to develop over the months it took to create it. I learned so much from my time at Code Coven's course—especially with Space Hamlet—on how to use Unity to create a game that wasn't just interactive text options.
