Nannan

2D puzzle RPG game made in Unity 2D/3D

About Nannan

Nan Nan is a 2D puzzle RPG game combining northern Chinese Folktales and cosmic horror to create a uniquely unsettling experience. The game uses nonlinear narratives to tell the life story of a ten-year-old girl, Nannan, and how she fights for a new life by solving the mystery of her hometown. From time looping to turn-based battle system, the game uses a variety of gameplay mechanics and art styles to investigate questions of gender inequality, cultural values and religion.

Role:
Project Manager
Game Designer
Tools:
Unity
Procreate
Context:
May 2020 - Dec 2022
Video Game
Team:
Lela Yuan, Audrey Renouf, Jade Wang, Kaitlyn Liu, Charvi
Hoysal, Kelly Zheng, Emily Guo, Megan Xu, Eli Fox, Clytie Qiu

Skill Sets

Main Takeaways

A Well-Scoped project is Very Important for Hackathons.

In my previous hackathons, my team and I always over-scope and end up staying up late or not finishing all we wanted to do. This time I pick a very small scope, I ended finished the majority of the content on Saturday morning and have an entire afternoon to play with procedural generation.

Cheat the Eyes with Sound Effects

To properly shatter an object, I’ll have to use Bender to cut up the meshes and textures into smaller pieces. That’s a lot of work considering the number of objects I have. Luckily, I notice that people care more about the moment they hit the object than the actual shattered pieces of objects – especially the pieces that are smaller.So I ended up using particle systems to “fake” shattering for smaller objects like cups and pen holders. Coupled with a satisfying sound effect, it managed to fool people into thinking they actually shattered it. But if they look closer, they will notice all the pieces are just cubes

Always Back Up

I tend to use GitHub to do version control, however, committing assets from the Unity Assets Store is against the guideline. So I have to gitignore all those assets to keep my Github repo public. During my development, I made a lot of extensions based on store assets – creating new prefabs, extending code, etc. I even edited some assets directly. However, these edits are not tracked by GitHub.
I ended up accidentally deleting all the store assets when merging branches and staring at an empty scene halfway through development – luckily I recovered everything from the recycling bin and I have intermediate builds I could always submit.

Data Plague

Global Game Jam Project Built in 24 Hours

About Data Plague

Data Plague is a single player puzzle game with strategic gameplay and immersive hacking experience. In this game, players take on the role of a virus hacker, spreading their malicious code across the office in a cyberpunk world. The goal is to infect devices ranging from printers to phones to coffee machines to get to the root server of the company. Within a limited amount of time, the player will carefully observe the behaviors and interaction of the employees to find the optimal hacking path. With challenging puzzles and an engaging storyline, Data Plague offers a unique and thrilling gaming experience that appeals to fans of both strategy and hacking games.

Role:
Level Designer,
UI Designer, Illustrator
Tools:
Unity, Github
Procreate, Blender
Context:
Jan 2023
Video Game Hackathon
Team:
Team: Lele Yuan, Blaine Black, Thomas Carey, Jason Jiang

Skill Sets

Main Takeaways

A Well-Scoped project is Very Important for Hackathons.

In my previous hackathons, my team and I always over-scope and end up staying up late or not finishing all we wanted to do. This time I pick a very small scope, I ended finished the majority of the content on Saturday morning and have an entire afternoon to play with procedural generation.

Cheat the Eyes with Sound Effects

To properly shatter an object, I’ll have to use Bender to cut up the meshes and textures into smaller pieces. That’s a lot of work considering the number of objects I have. Luckily, I notice that people care more about the moment they hit the object than the actual shattered pieces of objects – especially the pieces that are smaller.So I ended up using particle systems to “fake” shattering for smaller objects like cups and pen holders. Coupled with a satisfying sound effect, it managed to fool people into thinking they actually shattered it. But if they look closer, they will notice all the pieces are just cubes

Always Back Up

I tend to use GitHub to do version control, however, committing assets from the Unity Assets Store is against the guideline. So I have to gitignore all those assets to keep my Github repo public. During my development, I made a lot of extensions based on store assets – creating new prefabs, extending code, etc. I even edited some assets directly. However, these edits are not tracked by GitHub.
I ended up accidentally deleting all the store assets when merging branches and staring at an empty scene halfway through development – luckily I recovered everything from the recycling bin and I have intermediate builds I could always submit.

Data Plague

Global Game Jam Project Built in 24 Hours

About Data Plague

Data Plague is a single player puzzle game with strategic gameplay and immersive hacking experience. In this game, players take on the role of a virus hacker, spreading their malicious code across the office in a cyberpunk world. The goal is to infect devices ranging from printers to phones to coffee machines to get to the root server of the company. Within a limited amount of time, the player will carefully observe the behaviors and interaction of the employees to find the optimal hacking path. With challenging puzzles and an engaging storyline, Data Plague offers a unique and thrilling gaming experience that appeals to fans of both strategy and hacking games.

Role:
Level Designer,
UI Designer, Illustrator
Tools:
Unity, Github
Procreate, Blender
Context:
Jan 2023
Video Game Hackathon
Team:
Team: Lele Yuan, Blaine Black, Thomas Carey, Jason Jiang

Main Takeaways

A Well-Scoped project is Very Important for Hackathons.

In my previous hackathons, my team and I always over-scope and end up staying up late or not finishing all we wanted to do. This time I pick a very small scope, I ended finished the majority of the content on Saturday morning and have an entire afternoon to play with procedural generation.

Cheat the Eyes with Sound Effects

To properly shatter an object, I’ll have to use Bender to cut up the meshes and textures into smaller pieces. That’s a lot of work considering the number of objects I have. Luckily, I notice that people care more about the moment they hit the object than the actual shattered pieces of objects – especially the pieces that are smaller.So I ended up using particle systems to “fake” shattering for smaller objects like cups and pen holders. Coupled with a satisfying sound effect, it managed to fool people into thinking they actually shattered it. But if they look closer, they will notice all the pieces are just cubes

Always Back Up

I tend to use GitHub to do version control, however, committing assets from the Unity Assets Store is against the guideline. So I have to gitignore all those assets to keep my Github repo public. During my development, I made a lot of extensions based on store assets – creating new prefabs, extending code, etc. I even edited some assets directly. However, these edits are not tracked by GitHub.
I ended up accidentally deleting all the store assets when merging branches and staring at an empty scene halfway through development – luckily I recovered everything from the recycling bin and I have intermediate builds I could always submit.

Reflection

NannanData PlagueData Plague2