Binx

Lead Designer

About the game

With Binx, our team replaced the running and jumping movement of a classic 3D platformer with a resource-management-focused flying mechanic.  We made the ubiquitous collectathon game loop a secondary feature, focusing instead on level navigation puzzles. We also made the story a more central component by having boss fights and a quest-based objective system, and leaned into the educational space by referencing real-world nectar and honey-types.

The player takes on the role of Binx, a worker bee in a colony full of wacky personalities. When their livelihood is threatened by the greedy CEO Cornelius Von Venus, Binx is the only one with the “talent” and “skills” to save the hive.

I started as the sole designer on this project, maintaining documentation to keep our team on track, and our class and professor (in the role of shareholder) updated on the project. I also worked with our programmer to design and tune our core systems and mechanics. 

After the greenlight process, we got another designer to focus on level design, allowing me to dive into my specializations (narrative and systems).

Documentation

Above are two iterations of the core Visual Design Document. The earlier version on the left eventually evolved into the version on the right. 

Project Information:

Team Role: Lead Designer

Engine: Unity 3D

Team Size: 7

Project Timeframe: February-May 2021

Team:

Aster Nie: Lead Programmer

Sparrow Hopp: Systems/AI Programmer

Jacob Murphy: Character Artist

Devin Cadiz: Environment Artist

James Winter-Griffin: Level Designer/Prop Artist

Zemyrah Loss: Composer/ Sound Designer

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