JAZZ AND AZUL
Company
University Project
Duration
2019 - 2020
Genre
Narrative Adventure
Platform
PC
Engine
Unity
Roles
Game Design (all)
Writing (all)
Production (all)
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Design Bridge, a highly awarded design agency, chose our game to be featured as one of fourteen in their 2020 curation.
Overview
A single-player, story-driven adventure exploring friendship, segregation, and identity through a world divided by jazz and blues music.
My Main Contributions
Core Gameplay & Systems
Designed the core mechanics and systems, ensuring gameplay and narrative worked together to reinforce the game’s themes of division, connection, and cooperation.
Level & World Design
Built levels and world layouts in Unity, using space, progression, and environmental storytelling to communicate segregation and guide the player’s journey.
Puzzle Design
Created puzzles inspired by music theory and rhythm, integrating mechanics directly into the world’s logic and emotional themes.
Environmental Storytelling
Placed objects, characters, and scene elements intentionally to convey story, relationships, and history without relying solely on dialogue.
Narrative Integration
Designed the narrative to support gameplay pacing and player emotion, ensuring every mechanic and interaction served a clear narrative purpose.
Research-Driven Design
Conducted in-depth research into jazz and blues, music theory, and historical segregation to ground mechanics, environments, and story in meaningful context.
Cross-Discipline Collaboration
Worked closely with art, audio, and voice talent to align gameplay, narrative, and presentation into a cohesive player experience.
Production & Scope Awareness
Maintained clarity across pipeline and collaboration, ensuring design intent was preserved from concept through implementation.
Emotional Player Experience
Focused on creating a thoughtful, emotionally resonant experience where design decisions consistently supported the game’s message and tone.
Recognition & Impact
The project received industry recognition and awards, validating its design, narrative integration, and emotional impact.
An iteration of level and world design, sketched in Procreate and implemented in Unity, integrating narrative design and diegetic storytelling through an in-world map created by the protagonists to communicate upcoming obstacles.
A brief look at the development of a narrative-driven gameplay moment from paper design to unity implementation.
Two examples of different puzzle designs, both highlighting how their mechanics were heavily-researched and inspired by music theory and instruments. While the second design didn't make it in-game, the first one can be seen in the puzzle maze sequence.
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When aiding the artist with character designs, I drew these profiles of our beloved protagonists. Left is Azul Johnson and right is Jazz Fitzgerald. All names of characters, places, points of interest were inspired by real jazz and blues musicians.
