Designing Osy

Osy literally “emerged” from “the diffusion pool.” Our team of researchers participated in a series of game jams over the course of a month in early 2009, the goal being to create great games that placed scientific concepts at their core. Several concepts dominated our early discussions, “diffusion,” “osmosis,” “facilitated transport,” “active transport,” “passive transport,” “filtration,” “pressure-flow-resistance,” and several others. Eventually we landed on the idea of a “cell like” character that you had to keep in equilibrium with its surrounding environment via osmosis as the main dynamic system that the player is interacting with.

During the coming months we prototyped several ideas using the Unity game engine. Of course the name Osy itself went through several iterations during this time, ranging from Ozy to Ossey and eventually landing at Osy. During the summer of 2009 we put together a vertical slice of the game, which we then took out to students and teachers. That feedback resulted in a good understanding of what we needed to do to complete Osy, but not a lot of time or money to do it. Throughout the next year, Osy was played more and more by students in high school classrooms and students would continually ask us where they could get the game.

Each level is composed of 7 objects configured in various devious ways.

The most basic element is the “star.” These are of course the objects that Osy covets. There are 5 stars spread across each level. Osy’s internal bits will always point at the nearest star.

In the earliest levels of Osy, there are simple “barrier crystals” that keep Osy within certain boundaries. These disappear in later levels, but are useful for the creation of mazes and structure within a level.

“Bit vents” are those crazy structures that increase the number of bits present as Osy approaches them. These “bit blooms” make a player either rush in and out of an area or adjust their internal bit levels to keep Osy alive. Of course when Osy leaves a bit bloom, she’ll have to readjust her internal bit levels.

“Movable crystals” are heavy! Osy must either have a significant mass advantage to move them, or be moving quickly to bash them out of the way. Often times these big crystals obscure important things, like stars or oxygen vents.

“Oxygen vents” are the bubble vents that make Osy move faster. While moving fast, Osy can avoid adjusting her bit levels in bit blooms as well as move large crystals without having to become larger herself.

“Pure water vents” are areas completely devoid of bits. The vents blast pure water upwards, preventing bits from naturally moving into these areas. This means that no matter what Osy does, water will continue to move into her.

“Sharp crystals” are those extra pointy objects that are the bane of Osy’s existence. Run into one and you return to where you started the level (though you retain the stars collected up until that point). When they’re close together, Osy must make herself small to squeeze through.

As you can see from the level sketches at the top of this post, designing a level is merely a matter of assembly these puzzle pieces into some diabolic scheme to confound the player. Think you can best me at level design? Prove it! Check out the contest we’re running.