Q.B.Z.

A 3D first-person puzzle game brings you to a portal-feel world with numerous numbered cubes.

Role: Game and Level design, and scripting

Platform: PC (Download on itch.io)

Q.B.Z. is a first-person puzzle game that takes place in a mysterious facility containing numerous, complicated puzzles. The player has the ability to control and move giant cubes around in each of the facility’s rooms to solve puzzles that are blocking the way out. Different mechanics allow the player to manipulate the cubes in more advanced ways as the game progresses: Color Batteries change the functionality of the cubes, circuits activate platforms, and cube bridges connect up different parts of the levels.

All of my designs started as a series of drawings and rough specs in my notebook. When I was ready to begin creating the actual game, I began by designing the main mechanics of moving the cubes first. Next, I wrote the scripts to get the cubes to interact and created initial level layouts for the puzzles.

I put a lot of effort into the tutorial levels and the difficulty ramping so that the gameplay would be intuitive to the player without being explicitly told what to do. To test out my game, I held some public beta testing to gather feedback on tuning my levels and other minor details. This helped me a lot because I can now see some blind spots that I did not notice before.

Cubes Introduction

The first couple of levels are tutorial in order to teach the players different function between the cubes.

Exploration

Instead of room-based puzzles, there is an abandoned area which the player has to navigate and explore to find out where the exit is.

Advanced Puzzles

In this area, connect the circuit by moving the cubes can create bridges. This adds another layer of difficulty and complexity to the puzzles for the players to challenge.

Design

Some design before I jumped into the world of Q.B.Z. You can read the full design drafts in Level Design page.

Game Trailer

Gameplay Full Walkthrough

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