Otherworld 2: Omens of Summer
Otherworld 2: Omens of Summer continues right after you rescue a little girl named Fiona from the malignant and powerful Shade. In this installment, you must barter with or outwit creatures such as the Nyx and Banshee as you try to stop a cataclysm called the Eternal Winter from happening.
Project Description
Following Otherworld 1's success, Otherworld 2 was greenlit and pre-production began immediately after shipping Otherworld 1. Otherworld 2 continued the trend of exploring folklore in the UK. It explored a wider world than the first Otherworld, while staying true to the theme of dark fantasy featuring fay creatures who sometimes helped — or hindered — the main characters.
Otherworld 2 had a non-linear level design where the players could choose what location / level to explore after the first hour; this was achieved through the use of flags which would trigger events that I wrote myself, without the need for a dedicated programmer.
Management-wise, my goal was to get the best possible person working on what they did best — as reflected in the art. The Otherworld franchise's art style was heavily influenced by Thomas Kinkade, and Otherworld 2's landscapes and scenery exemplifies this.
Otherworld 2 was again a success and a third Otherworld game was greenlit.
My Role and Responsibilities
| My role | Designer / Team Lead |
|---|---|
| Core team size | 10-15 |
| Responsibilities | Design & Writing, Project Management, Production |
| Documentation produced | Game Design Document (finalization, editing), Pitch, Prototypes, Tasklist, Publisher Communication, Player Feedback Reports, Bug Reports (JIRA) |
| My tools | Photoshop, Excel (as game data exporter), Google Docs (pitch, feedback, and GDD), Google Sheets (task sheet, walkthrough), Basecamp, as well as proprietary company tools for level, video and UI elements |
| Credits | Mobygames |
As the team lead, I was present on the first day until the game shipped — all twelve months of development.
- I focused on high level design, writing, training artists and designers, and meeting milestones.
- I wrote nearly all the in-game text in Otherworld 2, except the strategy guide, which was provided by the publisher.
- Internally, this project developed the skills of artists and designers. The art and design team learned the basics of animation: tweens, softbodies, skeletal animation (rigging), and the like, which then translated to a better understanding of how to create and cut up assets for animation use.
Project Specs
| Project | Otherworld 2: Omens of Summer |
|---|---|
| My role | Designer / Team Lead |
| Developer | Boomzap |
| Publisher | Big Fish Games |
| Genre | Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure (HOPA) |
| Release Date | Feb 4, 2013 |
| Online stores | BFG - Steam |
| Platforms | PC, Mac, Android†, iOS† |
| Localization | German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch |
| Let's play* | Kawaii Games on YT |
†Android and iOS builds are no longer available from BFG's Play / App Stores.
*Let's play videos are playthroughs by players / fans. Neither the developer (Boomzap, my employer at the time) nor the publisher have any affiliation with these streamers / youtubers.
Production Gallery - Narrative Design in the Lighthouse
A primary conceit that the Otherworld series delved into was that fay creatures affected human lives and influenced human history. In Otherworld 2, the design team explored the belief in gremlins during World War 2 by exploring an old lighthouse that was shut down after the war.
Research is always part of design work: one cannot simply show a lightbulb in a lighthouse (that would be ridiculous) — we made sure to show a fresnel lens, a Mk V diving suit, and a Spitfire plane, to give the lighthouse a sense of history and realism.
The design team also believed that player choice would increase engagement, even in a story-driven genre. While typical games in the point and click genre were completely linear, Otherworld 2 allowed the user to choose what location to explore first: a misty forest, a lighthouse, or the mountains.
Bug Gallery
Fixing bugs usually took up the last month of development, from beta (also known as the content complete milestone) to gold. We'd submit a release candidate (RC) in the last week of the beta period, and if they accepted the RC, that build would be considered gold master.
