When choosing a graduation project, we were encouraged to work on something that could have a meaningful impact on the industry. I decided to continue working on the Shadows of Singraven demo game that our team had been developing in previous semesters. Since the game was primarily focused on puzzles, I chose to focus on improving the process of creating those puzzles.

In earlier development cycles, puzzles were first designed on paper or in external tools. Designers would then explain their ideas to the engineers, who implemented them in the game. Because the designers on the team were non-technical, this process often led to puzzles not being implemented exactly as they had envisioned.

To address this, I decided to create an easy-to-use puzzle creation tool that designers could work with directly. The goal was to give non-technical designers more control over how puzzles were built and implemented in the game.

I spent the four months of my graduation project designing, building, and testing this tool. Throughout the process, I regularly involved the designers, gathering feedback and testing the tool with them to ensure it met their needs and was intuitive to use.

Due to the limited time during the graduation period, the tool was only used to create a few puzzles in the final development cycle, as it still needed further refinement. However, those tests showed that the tool successfully helped designers create puzzles more easily and accurately translate their ideas into the game. Overall, the project demonstrated how dedicated tools can improve collaboration between designers and engineers and streamline the puzzle creation process.