Haul Away

Game design

My role as game designer for haul away was to establish the elements of the sea and the ship's gameplay during pre-production. I worked with one of my coworker, who is a sailing enthusiast but a novice in the field, and me, who is just as passionate but has a sailing background.
We confronted our visions of sailing between the concrete and the imagination. With our two approaches, we tried to obtain a realistic and pleasant result without falling into simulation, to give the player a feeling of mastery. We analysed all the elements that make up a sailing boat and put in place modules such as: the different sails, their sheets and halyards, the helm, oars, etc. We iterated to reduce their number and make them easier so as not to fall into simulation and difficulty. 
Then I worked on the elements and their mechanics that make up the level design and that interact directly with the player's boat such as the wind, currents and marine obstacles, and how all this impacts the gameplay of the game such as the windward grip.

Level design

As Level designer we, along with my coworkers, built the world of Haul Away around the intentions we had established, namely the feeling of mastery, loneliness and journey, as well as the vision we wanted to give to the archipelago : lost islands in a northern archipelago, and the history established by the group. Initially we had chosen a linear world and eventually opted for a semi-open world to better serve the feeling of discovery and exploration of the world. 
So we set the macro design level at 3 and divided it into 3 clusters of islands that we split up for production. I took care of the first cluster which is composed of the island and the starting area, and 4 other islands. We also established the list of Landmarks to be integrated on the important islands as well as the appearance of their silhouettes to guide the player. 

Level Art

Finally to lighten the work of the Game Art and test their assets in the environment, I did the level art of my cluster by working iteratively with one of my Game Art coworker In order to optimize her workload, I use as much as possible each asset she provides me with by declining them as much as possible in different forms to enrich the landscape while avoiding giving it more to produce. I take into account the intentions we established with my Levels Designers coworkers for each island to give it its own personality, for example, an island that was a former Whaler den or an island where Elea stayed before she left.