World of Women Tower
The Sandbox Season 3 - August 2022
World of Women Tower was a map developed in partnership with World of Women to present their new Galaxy collection featuring seven unique universes. The main challenge was to display all these distinct worlds in a single 1x1 map (96x96x128 blocks). I tried several different approaches until deciding that I would unite the seven worlds under a single tower, each with its definite biome for the women living under it and using the full verticality of the level to my advantage.
I started with a Narrative Document to give each character some depth and background and then built a High-Level Design Document based off of it. The characters’ personalities and backgrounds match the gameplay involved in each part.
Architecture and Themes
The Tower was inspired by my fascination with Islamic architecture in medieval Spain, under which three very different monotheistic religions coexisted for hundreds of years. It felt especially relevant with the theme of the experience, in which different women that come from utterly opposing worlds coexist in harmony. I also wanted to touch upon so more personal themes as I was undergoing my first experience living aboard in France for my job, thus exploring the concept of home and what it could look like from different perspectives. I visited the Islamic section of the Louvre many, many times for this map and also took inspiration from a trip to Granada.
1. Night Realm, home to the mysterious and elusive Hina, featured a small puzzle but was mostly about mind-boggling visual effects and light displays.
2. Cyber-Jungle is home to tech-savvy Palesa, a Biotechnologist focusing on the problems between nature and technology. This part of the level was a platforming section that switched visually from a jungle to a full metaverse as the player progressed.
3. Golden Star is the world of cryptographer and linguist Callisto. This section included two puzzles in order to advance.
4. Flaming Ember was a fighting session in honor of its mighty warrior Mato, who has held the title of Best Warrior in the anual competition of her world since she was eight years old, in a festival where her volcano-filled land reaches its highest peak of sulphur emissions.
Dialogues were also written by me.
