Evan Thiede

Liminal spaces were a big draw for my motivation for level design. Echoes of Gold was a project that I wanted to evoke that inspiration in the player. The feeling of being at peace, but also mildy uneasy. The lack of understanding and the sheer solitary nature of environment creates the feeling that you are somewhere that you are not supposed to be, while still being visually striking.

This project was my dive into solo development. Start to finish, I learned all the tools necessary to bring this game to life.

As my first big project, there are elements of my process that I would improve upon, looking back now. Limited greybox work meant I was redesigning the environment from scratch a few times. My vision was so wide as a new designer, that I had too much planned and none of the skills yet.

The experience of creating the world of Echoes of Gold was truly one of my favorites. I was able to learn a lot looking back upon this project. Usability testing and UX research were a shortcoming being so new to the parallel workflow of UX with game development. I am proud of the experience that I was able to create as an introduction piece. I am confident that going back now, armed with level design, UX design, and usability study skills, I would be able to improve upon this project drastically.