Mutant Soldier: Stranded

Role: Level Designer, Scripter
Duration: January - Feburary 2026 (6 weeks)
Engine: Unity

Mutant Soldier: Stranded is a 2D game I developed after I graduated for fun and to continue to progress my Unity skills. I created a turn-based maze game, where the player crash lands in the middle of a forest and has to find their way out.

To complete the game, the player must find 4 different gemstones to craft a special axe that lets the player escape the mysterious forest. The gems are locked behind puzzles, minigames, and enemies with each one being more challenging to acquire than the last.

Goals:

Build and script a playable turn-based maze game prototype with interesting mechanics, challenges, puzzles, and systems.
Create strong design documentation that includes a game design power point.
Further increase my design and Unity scripting skills and test myself on new or different ideas and mechanics.

Project Roles

Designed and laid out a 2D forest maze environment using a Unity tile map.
Structured the maze to allow for non-linear decision making (open-world type design).
Designed creative and fun puzzles for the player to complete.
Implemented interesting events, enemy combat, and landmarks for the player to explore.

Level Designer

Scripter

Created numerous scripts for the project including enemy AI combat, player ability systems, puzzles, NPCs and more.
Script a player talent-tree system with unique and meaningful abilities.
Implement responsive combat and out-of-combat UI and tutorial screens.

The Design Process

I came up with the idea for this project one day while brainstorming game ideas I thought would be fun to create. Once I had a few cool ideas I wrote them down and starting developing a power-point that I might present to a team as a pitch idea.

Pitch Power-Point

I created a power-point for a turn-based maze game where the player is a stranded in the middle of a large forest.
Inspired by RPG games old games like Metroid: Fusion, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Included features like a skill tree, different abilities, puzzles, and more.

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MSS_Idea2

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(Click to enlarge)

After I completed the power-point I began searching and downloading free 2D assets I could use for this project including the tiles for the map, player and enemy animations, and objects/items the player would find in the maze.

Game Mechanics

Skill Tree: The player can level up by collecting coins and defeating enemies. Each level up the player can spend a skill point they gain on the skill tree I created.

Player Abilities: Player abilities are unlocked in the skill tree system. Once unlocked, they can be used in all future battles the player comes across.

Mini Games: I designed numerous mini games and puzzles the player can encounter that are required to beat the game.

Turn-Based Combat: The combat is played in turn-based fashion, with a few different enemies that have different attacks and abilities.

Map Layout

I constructed the map using Unity's tile map feature and a free tile map pack I found online. I created the player spawn point in the center and structured the maze to be explored in any of the 4 directions. I put the 4 hidden gems the player needs to acquire in outer parts of the maze in the corners of the map. Each gem is gated behind a puzzle, trap, or enemy combat situation that the player needs to overcome.

Blue Gem: Retrieved by completing a "grove game". Simon says type game where the player has to respond by stepping on the right color pressure plate that the games tells them to.

Green Gem: Acquring enough gold throughout the maze to buy the gem from a vendor that needs saving from enemy mutants.

Red Gem: Survive the "haunted graves trap". Ghosts spawn in random locations and try to collide with the player, the player needs to dodge them and survive before time runs out.

Yellow Gem: Complete the "ritual game" puzzle. The player needs to find 3 unique items throughout the maze and bring them back to the ritual table before time runs out.

Scripting Tasks

Grove Game (Blue Gem)

In this minigame the player is given a specific color pressure plate to stand on, and they need to respond by stepping on the right color. To complete the game, they must successfully do this 3 times in a row.

Design Challenges

This minigame took a lot of iterating on and design changes to successfully portray the objective and communicate what was happening to the player more clearly. I overcome the following challenges:

The original game was started the minute they enter the room with little to no context. I added an NPC that the player has to talk to in order to start the game.
I added a tutorial screen to better help the player understand how to play the minigame
I included the objective reward to let the player know the game was required to get a blue gem, rather than them being uninterested and skipping it all together because the reward wasn't communicated clearly.

Haunted Graves (Red Gem)

If the player enters the haunted graves region, some ghosts will lock the way out then begin spawning in random intervals. The player has to survive the ghost onslaught until the timer runs out to get the red gem.

Design Challenges

The original design of this trap was too easy for the player to survive, so I focused on ways to increase the difficulty but also make it satisfying to dodge and survive.

I added special ghost "flyers" to the spawn intervals, every 3 seconds a ghost will be launched at high speed towards the current player position, instead of being completely random.
I made the ghosts spawning left or right to be random, so it was less predictable when the next ghost spawned would come from the left or right.

Ritual Game (Yellow Gem)

When the player enters the ritual game area the player will be tasked with finding 3 unique items around the maze and bringing them back to the ritual table within a set amount of time.

Design Challenges

I had problems trying to get the player to understand the objective and the meaning of the time limit. The original concept was too vague and unclear, so I worked on improving the clarity of the objective and how to complete it.

I added a few helpful arrow "hints" on which way to head towards for the next item.
If the player enters combat while trying to find an item, the timer will be paused.

Turn-Based Combat

The player will automatically enter combat if they get too close to a patrolling enemy. Any skills the player has unlocked will be available to use during combat. The enemy will make decisions based off of their health and the player's health level to determine which ability to use.