Stretch And Squash
Stretch and Squash is a Co-Op Puzzle platformer, inspired by the likes of It Takes Two and Psychonauts. You play as 2 mechanically distinct characters (Stretch and Squash) solving puzzles using your unique slime-based attributes. I worked on Stretch and Squash from conception to the release of the Itch demo as a systems and level designer.
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Stretch and Squash was a 2024 Games Academy Expo Peoples Choice Winner.
Platform: PC + Console
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Team Size: 9
Duration: [March '24 - May '24]
Role: Systems and Level Designer + Producer
Genres: Puzzle, Co-Op, Platformer
My Contributions
Due to the timescale of the project I ended up working as both a Systems and Level designer and Producer. My contributions were as follows:
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​Blue Sky:
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Produced Initial IP: Developed the initial intellectual property for the game.​
Game Design:
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3Cs: Designed the movement mechanics and attributes for each player character, Stretch and Squash.
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Player Ability Mechanics: Defined the abilities and unique characteristics of each player character.
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External Playtesting: Conducted playtesting sessions with external participants to gather feedback and refine gameplay mechanics.
Level Design
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Puzzle Design: Crafted engaging puzzles that challenged players to utilize the abilities of both characters.
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Asset Lists: Created comprehensive asset lists for the puzzles to guide the art and development teams.
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Level Design: Designed the layout and structure of the game levels to facilitate gameplay and puzzle progression.
Production
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Organizing Sprint Tasks: Managed and organized tasks for each sprint to ensure efficient progress.
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Creating Playtest Focus Groups: Established focus groups for playtesting sessions to gather targeted feedback on specific aspects of the game.
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Market Research: Conducted research on market trends and player preferences to inform design decisions.
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Feedback Forms: Developed feedback forms and surveys during pre-production to collect possible genre trends from our target market.
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Timeline Management: Managed the timeline for deliverables, ensuring that milestones were met and deadlines were adhered to.
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Stretch and Squash Overview
Stretch and Squash is a Co-Op Puzzle Platformer with it's unique selling point being the two unique player characters. The game draws inspiration from the hit It Takes Two as well as the wonderful Psychonauts.​​​
Stretch and Squash was an incredible experience of developing as a small indie studio condensed into a short timescale as part of my Master of Arts in Game Design. I served as the core designer/producer in a team of 9. From conceptualising the core IP to defining the unique selling points, I had a lot of input into this game.​​​
3Cs Character Design
Design Goal: I wanted to have 2 playable characters that are unique to one another. With both feeling equally useful.
Solution: I designed a base for each character so that both characters had the same jump height and movement feel. I felt that by changing the core movement of both one could feel worse. Each character would be unique in how they interact with the world.
Stretch: Stretch had abilities based around stretching. One of the core pillars was Tactile Controls; I liked the idea of using the triggers and thumbsticks to stretch out. Stretches abilities are slower than squashes.
Squash: Squash's abilities are mostly about absorbing energy and releasing it in some fashion. For example, absorbing objects and launching them out or launching to a slime to suck onto it. Squash was more agile.
Playtesting Results: I noticed that the players would more easily pick up the abilities of squash. I decided to utilise this by giving Squash more supportive abilities, so that players could support each other and interact together.
Iterative Changes: Squash initially could Squash jump, jumping higher by squashing first. This was inspired by Super Mario's crouch jump. We changed this into a bounce pad for stretch. This added an ability that was both supportive for stretch and systemically immersive.
Documentation: Due to the short time constraint, we worked in 1 week sprints with playtests throughout. I aimed to keep the documentation lightweight as I predicted a lot of iterative changes. This documentation then mostly doubled up into the pitch document.
Stretch and Squash Pitch Deck [Plasma Institute, 2024]
Level Design
Overview: I designed 2 levels for the vertical slice. Both with unique challenges.
Lab: Building on top of a pre-existing environment. Creating a level within an open environment.
Sewer: Blocking out a tutorial within interior corridors.
Lab Design: This was a fairly unconventional level as players were scaled at a micro level. Everyday objects would be scaled as big as houses from the players perspective. This was a fun challenge to utilise unconventional household items as building blocks for a level.
Sewer Design: Players start this level separate, this was to allow players to get to grips with their individual abilities before utilising them together. To make sure players are in sync with their progression, there is a final puzzle that forces players to work together to progress.
Expo Playtesting
Tutorialisation: With the unique playstyles of each character and their interactions, tutorialisation was vital for the game. We utilised the expo as a mass playtest and I regularly employed hotfixes to change elements players didn't connect with. I wouldn't tell players how to play the game. I would just observe and make notes.
Example: I focused on building a visual vocabulary for players in the tutorial which I found worked well.
For the first squash down section, I made it very obvious that you could interact in some way. I had both an interactable Ui element and a floor decal.
Design Problem: I used similar vocabulary for stretch. For this lab section I wanted players to split up so I put a decal on the shelf wall to show players could scale across to the shelf. However during playtesting, players would get stuck on this section.
Revelation: I tried to break down why this would happen. My oversight was that players would assume the decal was an exact position to stretch to. I decided that this could be simply fixed by moving the decal to a point players could access. This way players would stretch over to the shelf as the decal was located on the floor.
Puzzle Design
Design Goal: My philosophy for the puzzle design and core pillar: a player should never have to wait for the other to do something. They should always be actively engaging in the world.
Puzzle Placement: We utilised big recognizable lab equipment for the puzzles. I wanted each puzzle to act as a landmark in the world.
Puzzle Design: I wanted many of the puzzles to focus on a dynamic way to traverse the environment. The corkscrew is a great example of this. Feedback was really positive on this puzzle particularly as the realisation is complemented with a fast satisfying movement.
Production
Agile Process: With the timescale being shorter than usual, we opted for a 1 week sprint model for design and programming. We would meet on Tuesday to plan our sprint; Build for Fridays to playtest internally and externally playtest on a Monday. This data would then go into the sprint planning for next sprint planning session.
Trello: Within the project I formed trello boards with clear sprint goals. The trello was organised into 6 categories: Backlog, To-Do, In-Progress, Under Review, Shipped and Sprints. We decided to have a separate board for artists as we felt that artists could work on a 2 sprint week model without slowing production of new builds.
Sprint Retrospectives: With this sprint process, I made sure to create short sprint retrospectives, this was very useful to ensure people weren't overworked. By tracking the completed tasks each sprint, we could reallocate devs to help out on the bigger tasks and priorities.
Stand Up Process: One of the challenges we had to overcome was that some of our devs had other commitments due to the semi-part time nature of the Masters. This meant that in-person daily stand ups weren't the best course of action. This is where we employed a remote stand ups channel. I would then collate the stand ups into a form that people could check.
Stretch And Squash
Stretch and Squash is a Co-Op Puzzle platformer, inspired by the likes of It Takes Two and Psychonauts. You play as 2 mechanically distinct characters (Stretch and Squash) solving puzzles using your unique slime-based attributes. I worked on Stretch and Squash from conception to the release of the Itch demo as a systems and level designer.
​
Stretch and Squash was a 2024 Games Academy Expo Peoples Choice Winner.
Platform: PC + Console
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Team Size: 9
Duration: [March '24 - May '24]
Role: Systems and Level Designer + Producer
Genres: Puzzle, Co-Op, Platformer