Maraca Manuel is a mobile endless runner themed after Día De Muertos.
FORMAT
Engine
Unity 2D
Team Size
Five
Development Time
Two weeks
ROLES & TASKS
Game Designer
Researching Día De Muertos
Designing Core Gameplay
Generating Design Documentation
UI Designer
Designing & Implementing All UI
DESIGN GOALS
Create a “mobile style” game and gameplay loop
Tackle mobile UI for the first time
DESIGN DISCUSSION
Trying to create a compelling (but not abusive) mobile gameplay loop was an interesting design challenge for me as someone who has a lot of disdain for exploitative monetization practices but who does enjoy a lot of mobile games. Armed only with the idea of a Día De Muertos inspired game with a protagonist that wields an enormous maraca, ultimately I decided to start where I start for all design and lean into my source of inspiration. My research brought me to the three day structure of the holiday. Instead of committing to a truly endless runner, we opted for a three phases of gameplay, an easier warm-up phase, a harder more intense phase, and finally a celebration phase after defeating the boss. That cycle could be repeated in “years” to mimic the cyclical nature of holidays. Our coins became Marigolds, and our lives became sugar skulls, and our goal became to lead lost spirits to ofrendas to reunite them with their families. Piece by piece the design came together. Ultimately we decided the best way to simulate monetization was to give players a second chance upon losing mid-run by watching an Ad and to give them a chance to double their Marigolds by doing the same. I also created a shop screen to buy cosmetics and lives to speed up the process of playing should someone lose too many times in a row and want to play before they recharge.
