My Cryptid Companion - Team Cryptech
GENRE: Pet Simulator
ROLE: Designer
ENGINE: Unreal Engine 5
YEAR: 2025
CORE CONTRIBUTIONS:
- Game direction and technical design
- Pet artifical intelligence (not that kind of AI. Behaviours and trait system, using UE5's behaviour systems)
- Scripting (water bowl system, room traversal mechanics (for the player and mothman), Unlockable rooms, Room interactables and hidden objects.)
- Audio design and sound implementation
- Post-processing
- Project pitching
SUPPLEMENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
- UI design (map UI, main menu, settings menu)
- In-world UI rendering (computer screen UI and main menu)
- Additional art assets and textures
- Promotional material organization
This was the group project I worked on for my second year of university, serving as a designer. We were faced with the challenge of making a pet simulator that would work within the short-form format the brief required. It was a very strange project to design for, and we definitely had to compromise due to time constraints, but I think our final plan was well-scoped. A lot of content was left on the cutting room floor, and I do still feel guilty about leaving so much of the artists' hard work behind, but I'm proud of what we did manage to deliver.
As the designer, this project helped me develop my skills in essentially liaising between artists and programmers while also balancing my own workload, which was extremely important for developing my skills in working with a full development team.
I was tasked with figuring out the core gameplay loop and it's implementation, along with delivering some small design documents for smaller systems.
We ultimately produced one interactive cryptid pet with an array of behaviours and ways to interact, and one in-game week worth of content with an optional endless mode.
As the project progressed, I expanded far beyond my specialism, contributing all the game's sound, some minor work on the games art (a low-res filter, one 3D model, and tweaks to the materials), all UI animation, and the full implementation of many gameplay mechanics.
My last contribution to the project was the "Expo Edition" of the game, which is the version you will see when downloading the game from itch.io. This was created for the Falmouth Games Academy Expo 2025.
This was mainly my work, created after the project deadline, originally starting as an alternative version of the game that had a scoreboard on the main menu (to attract visitors to the game's booth), but quickly went far beyond that.
The version of the Expo Edition that released is more of an enhanced edition of the game, fixing many bugs, adding a new menu screen, and making many balance changes, such as compacting the game's original 7 days into just 5 to make a faster and more compelling gameplay experience.
Technical design example - cryptid drinking
These slides show an example of the design processes that I worked on throughout this project. I wish I could highlight more, but even this one simple feature requires a lot of explanation!
The mechanic of cryptids needing to drink was one of the very first mechanics prototyped by me, as the team felt it was a necessary inclusion for a pet simulation.
However, after this initial prototype, it was found that the mechanic struggled to fit in the core gameplay loop alongside the food mechanic, and the eventual happiness and relationship meters.
I wanted to set about fixing that.
Early HUD design - The original HUD graphics contained only a hunger and thirst meter, with other meters added as placeholders. This shows how crucial the team felt this feature was.
Extremely early prototype - Water was visible
on the inventory even before the main cryptid
model had been settled on.
Initial drinking prototype - a water bowl button would be held down, emulating the feeling of pouring water into the bowl. It would then fill the water meter.
This would remain the same throughout the entire process, as it just felt satisfying. But some adjustments were made to the speed of the meter!