Poled Apart

Genre: 3D third person, Co-op, platformer

Team Size: 5

Duration: 2 months

Poled Apart is a 3D cooperative platformer for two players. Combine your magnetic powers of attraction and repulsion to explore a mysterious world full of dangerous antimatter.

Genre: 3D third person, Co-op, platformer

Team Size: 5

Duration: 2 months

Poled Apart is a 3D cooperative platformer for two players. Combine your magnetic powers of attraction and repulsion to explore a mysterious world full of dangerous antimatter.

My responsibilties

Game Design

Outlining mechanics
Tweaking movement and magnetism
UI Concept
Feedback design
Playtesting
QA, close work with programmers
Developing narrative
Combining existing elements and functionalities in engine to create new puzzle elements

Level Design

Developing high level concept
Conceptualizing & Rational Design of challenges
Creating 2D layout and 3D blockout
Set dressing (textures) & global lighting

Project Management

Project Planning, mapping out dependencies
Creating and managing asset & feature lists
Prioritizing task, using MoSCoW method
Prepare team meetings (agendas)
Moderating & Taking notes while team meeting
Communication with externals

Core Mechanic

Both players are magnetic and can switch their polarity (charge) at any time. If both are charged the same, they will repel each other. If they are charged oppositely, they will attract each other.

(Apart from that, they can walk and jump.)

Gameplay implications

Players can use repulsion…

to boost each other over gaps which are too far away for a normal jump
to perform higher jumps
to accelerate when seperating

Players can use attraction…

to drag the other player up, e.g. out of a hole
to pull a jumping player to the next platform
to accelerate when together
to make one player walk at the ceilling

Tweaking & faking physics

The main goal was to create an impactful, thus strong, charge effect on the one hand. On the other hand, it should not feel annoying to move together, being constantly influenced by each other.

These two seemingly conflicting goals required a lot of iterations, testing and as well as faking the real life physics.

The player’s gravity, mass, max Speed values and animation curves of attraction and repulsion needed all to be harmonised. Since the effect of the magnetic force depends on the distance between both players and their current movement, the process got very complicated.

Puzzle and action elements

To create more variety in gameplay challenges, the charge mechanics is used with regard to objects to create puzzle and action challenges, such as charged platforms or elevators (movable by attraction and repulsion) or dangerous charged antimatter, which the player needs to dodge (and reacts dependent of the player’s charge).