in collaboration with:
Samantha Deneus
sydney deneus
Dayana Shuler
Link to download: Cypher by SamuSugu, CMII Game Design Studio (itch.io)
Cypher is a third-person ability shooter inspired by games like Destiny 2 and overwatch, with the hyper-stylized and comic-book aesthetic of games such as hi-fi rush and persona 5. For our student project, I had the opportunity to design the Ui for the menus and hud, the main script for all dialogue, and the music as well as sfx.
When designing the menus and main HUD, the primary focus was to keep the design in line with our chosen art style to complement the aesthetic. It’s important to keep the player immersed any way you can as it will allow the player to resonate with the game world even during moments of downtime. A more visually immersive loading screen was included.
The primary colors used were rose red and seafoam green, two colors that not only provided good contrast between each other but also worked well as complementing colors to black and white, whether as the main color or as highlights. Similarly, we chose the font 'Yagiza' that matched the dynamic nature of the game and matched the cyperpunk setting.
The iconography was designed to be minimalistic in detail to match the futuristic, y2k-inspired theme, while still being visually in line with the elements they represent. For example, the player can look at a skill icon for spell called 'Flamebringer' and instantly understand it is a fire spell.
Both icons and ui assets feature heavy outlines and/or halftone patterns, emphasizing the comic-book aesthetic even further in addition to being striking in general.
Script + Dialogue
Set in a futuristic, cyberpunk world, The story centers around our main character echo, who wakes up to find himself locked in captivity for unknown reasons. after escaping he discovers he has latent powers akin to magic, and that he and those like him have been forced into seclusion due to workings of phc, a mysterious organization that seemingly has ties to the government. However, these same people are now suddenly disappearing, it's up to echo to stop the disappearances and uncover what PHC is.
The main philosophy when penning the dialogue and major storybeats was to take the superhero-like plot, and inject a feeling of realism, i.e. "how would a superhero plot function with our understanding of the modern world and the people that life within it." For this, I decided to include npc's to our hub worlds and give them exposition that provides further context on the world around them, and the influences phc has on the world outside of the plot, alongside the occasional bit of comedy to inject some levity.
Sound design
echoes, the original soundtrack composed by myself, was heavily influenced by the jungle, house, and Drum-n-bass music featured in games of the late 90s and early 2000s, as well as my love for sample-heavy hip-hop.
each setting features a track for the hub area, and a more up-tempo track for the combat stages. The main piano motif, played in the title screen, makes brief appearances throughout the soundtrack to connect the worlds together.
A playlist featuring a majority of the compositions has been linked for your listening pleasure. I hope you give it a listen and enjoy.
