Kamiel Maes

Game Designer and Programmer Portfolio

Build-A-Slime

Roles

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This is a one-pager for the project made by one of my group mates

Project background

Build-A-Slime is a game prototype for a casual sandbox VR game. The background for this project is that a school project challenged us to imagine how a chosen technology would develop over the next thirty years. We then were tasked with making a game for players in this future while keeping in mind how these technological and resulting societal developments would change the games industry.

The technology we focused on was gene therapy and manipulation which we expected to develop into a full-fledged medical technology and starting to expand into the cosmetic industry around thirty years into the future. We also expected the growth of the games industry to result in a VR-like gaming device with far greater capabilities and more popularity.

Concept

This is a game made by a future gene-therapy company wanting to increase the interest in cosmetic gene modification by making gene therapy more widely understood and accepted. For this purpose they make a fun casual game about gene modification to create a more positive image for the technology and introduce people to the possibilities. In the game you get to create and shape your own amazing pet slime by modifing his DNA.

Gameplay

Build-A-Slime has very straightforward gameplay. you start with a few basic genes that you can combine to create more complex genes. The player can then slot these genes into the DNA of the slime and depending on where in the DNA you put the gene specific aspects of the slime will change.

The main goal of the game is to just experiment and explore the possibilities and have fun creating funny, whacky or awesome slimes.

Important contributions

The fun of VR

One of the most important contributions i made to the project was my understanding of what makes VR fun for players, namely how tactile and physical the gameplay is and the immersion that provides. This fact is the reason people play VR even with the often clunky controls and usability problems that VR has.

This understanding became an important pillar of our design philosophy, and led to us making all of the gameplay into a sandbox style experimentation experience. where all of the controls and gameplay is focused on the player having fun playing with that tactile nature of VR.

Slime modification

I build the system the game uses to change the visuals of the slime. It used an ID system on the genes to track what changes need to be made to the slime and applies the changes when the transformation button is pressed by the player. the system is made to allow artists and designers to easily implement and change what effect the genes have or swap out old assets.

Skills and technologies