Game Trailer
"Lalaland" is a third-person Sandbox Game Designed for Young adults to relive childhood memories. Players take on the role of a Toy Completing Whimsical Tasks like finding milk Bottles or defeating Sentient Eggplant Monsters. The game emphasizes player freedom, offering unrestricted exploration and interaction without limitations on quests or locations, ensuring an enjoyable & nostalgic Experience.
Role in Lalaland:
In this Team, my role is both the Project Lead & the Game Designer, and 3D Artist
Project Lead: As the Project Lead, I plan the Sprints, future plans, Check ups.
Game Designer: As the Game Designer, I block out the Game levels, Paper maps, and UI wireframes
3D Artist: As a 3D Artist & Game Designer for the team, I made the Level Assets, such as tables, chairs, to complement the Game’s Aesthetic. On top of creating Assets, I help to do some animations for the enemies & help out with Rigging & texturing for some assets
Paper Maps & Levels
Bedroom Level/Tutorial
Level 1:
This is where the player will start off and we want them to be introduced to the bedroom first, as the Action Figure is the Boy’s Toy so the Bedroom is the Boy’s room. to help with environmental storytelling, we have props around that complement the Narrative of the game.
The Tutorial will be in the bedroom too, it will start off with moving from point A to Point B, afterwards teaching them how to shoot, and there are targets to be shot, which drop Ammo, so the player knows about this Mechanic. Afterwards will be introduced to grabbing of Objects, and then be introduced to the HUD (explained below), then lastly will show the overarching goal of the player, which is to find the missing parts of another Action Figure, which eventually they will fight to complete the game.
Player HUD:
So this is where the Player will always come back to, to view their progress/milestones to collect rewards such as skins in the Achievements Tab & the Range of Weapons they can swap to in the Arsenal.
The Chest was there for players to store stuff that they've picked up. But it was later removed because we did not manage to make an Inventory System
Living Room Level
Level 2:
In this level, the Player will be introduced to enemies first and then to Puzzles.
The quests in this Level were mainly inspired by most of the team’s childhood and how we mainly spent our time at the living room playing with our toys and having dinner at the dining table, and also doing homework on the Table. Which explains why we have picking up train pieces quests that go around the entire living room, and Stationary and vegetable enemies on the Dining Table.
This was also where we introduced Environmental Hazards in the game, such as Vacuum cleaner, Ceiling Fan, and Windows, which players can use to complete quests by eliminating enemies with them
Kitchen Level
Level 3:
Level 3 is based on a Kitchen. The enemies, Puzzles, & Environmental Hazards in this Level are all inspired by Kitchen Equipmen,t such as stoves, sinks & Washing machines, which are the environmental Hazards. Finding Bottles & Knives as quests, and lastly, enemies such as Pumpkins, cockroaches,etc.
There will be an introduction to a new enemy Type called “Tank enemies” one specific example would be the Pumpkin Enemy as they require more hits to be eliminated and are slower. However if player gets damaged by the Tank type enemy, it would be more than the Normal enemies. Making it slow but deadly.
The Yellow boxes with arrows below are Cinemachines that help guide the player to specific quests & Environmental Hazards.
Toilet Level
Level 4:
Level 4 is based off a washroom which has equipment such as Toilet Bowl, Rubbish bin, sink, shower head etc. Some Quests in this level are collection based quests such as finding Shampoo Bottles, Tooth brush etc.
Initially we wanted to add a new Type of Enemy which are flying enemies. But later removed due to overscoping of Project.
So we stuck to the normal Type of enemies but with a different set of Animations to make the player think that they are fighting against a flying enemy.
The enemy in this area are Grasshopper enemies that hop & use their wings to attack the player
Overall Map
This is the Overall Map with the arrows showing the Location of the Missing boss parts.
The “Cannot Enter” room is the parents room and we have future plans for it to be unlocked after defeating the boss in the current game itself.
UI Wireframe
Animations
Pencil Animation Frames:
Frame 1 - 40 (Idle)
Frame 60 - 110 (Running/hopping)
Frame 130 - 200 (Attack Animation)
Frame 220 - 250 (Death Animation)
Frame 320 - 380 ( Stunned Animation)
Pumpkin Animation Frames:
Frame 0 - 80 (Idle)
Frame 100 - 200 (Transformation)
Frame 220 - 240 (Charging up)
Frame 250 - 340 (Charging attack)
Frame 370 - 470 (Stun)
Frame 490 - 550 (Death Animation)
Models & Texturing
Outside Area Assets:
2 Cars, 1 pick up truck, 1 Optimus Prime Inspired Truck, 1 Bus
2 Cars, 1 pick up truck, 1 Optimus Prime Inspired Truck, 1 Bus
Road with pavement & Divider
3 Trees
Bus Stop
Cafe
Hospital
HDB Flats
Initially, these Assets are only Used outside, so when player looks over the window. It won’t be just a plain Canvas but there would actually be buildings & Vehicles around.
But later in production, we decided to include some of them inside the house as “Interactable Toys”
Extra Living Room Assets:
Shelf(s)
Potted Plant(s),
Guitar & Music Player
Lamp
Bag
Dumbbell Rack
Television
Extra Kitchen Assets:
Curtain(s)
Shelf(s)
Eggplant & Pumpkin
Knife(s)
Bottle(s)
Enemy Assets, how it works is for example. (Player throw Pumpkin into wafflemaker and closes the wafflemaker, wafflemaker opens up kills pumpkin and spawns in Waffle that has pumpkin inside of it.) The 3 variations would Include: Waffled Enemy(s) (Thrown into wafflemaker) Toasted Enemy(s) (Thrown into Toaster) Frozen Enemy(s) (Thrown into Fridge)
3D Character Rigging & Inverse Kinematics (IK)
Software: Blender
Skills Used: Rigging, Inverse Kinematics, Weight Painting, Deformation Testing, Bone Constraints
Overview: I created full-body armature rigs and implemented Inverse Kinematics (IK) systems for three 3D characters. Each rig was tailored to the character’s anatomy and intended animation needs, ensuring both functionality and flexibility.
Designed and implemented a custom rig including articulated limbs and shoulder plates.
Set up IK chains for both arms and legs to allow natural posing and movement.
Created bone constraints for smooth secondary motion on antennas.
Performed full-body weight painting to ensure smooth deformation during movement.
Built a playful, stylized rig with proportionally large limbs and a round body.
Set up IK for legs and arms, with FK spine and head controls for nuanced posing.
Weight painted mesh with focus on soft deformation and avoiding distortion around joints.
Constructed a non-humanoid rig to support an eerie and fluid character style.
Applied IK/FK systems on arms and spine to allow for expressive movements.
Managed deformation across twisted limbs and floating parts using advanced weight painting.
Used control bones and constraints for tentacle-like appendages and dynamic poses.
VFX
Weapon Diagrams
