(A mod for Outer Wilds)
Downloaded by over 10,000 players.
Team Size: 5
Tools: Unity, Visual Studio, GitHub, Blender, Krita, Audacity
Development Time: 1.5 years
Programmer, Designer, Writer, Technical Artist:
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Started and led a multidisciplinary project from inception to completion over a period of 1.5 years
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Designed and implemented interconnected puzzles and locations to fit as naturally as possible within the game
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Wrote dialogue and ship logs to effectively communicate narrative and key puzzle information
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Ran playtests and an open alpha to iterate upon and improve every aspect of the mod
Player Comments
"What a beautiful experience. I got so much more than I expected, and ended up crying. 10/10" - C00lbo
"It's soooo good. The puzzles are clever and original and genuinely had me losing my mind when I understood them!" - Mateo-vz4fl
"Weird nobody told me Mobius put out a second DLC..." - Frocto
"It was phenomenal!!"
- Jon Oppenheimer, 3D Artist on Outer Wilds
A mod for Outer Wilds about a mysterious probe from the distant past.
DESIGN
Astral Codec has 2 main design pillars: "Integrate as naturally into the base game as possible" and "Make use of existing underutilized mechanics".
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The design of nearly every puzzle started by selecting an existing mechanic from the base game that was never necessary for solving a puzzle.
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Environments and narrative were designed to ensure players learned these necessary mechanics.
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Locations all feature clues designed to lead players to other key locations in a nonlinear fashion.
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Every puzzle and location went through several iterations based on playtest observations and player feedback.
A developer oversight becomes a puzzle solution.
NARRATIVE
Narrative is tightly integrated with gameplay.
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Nearly every piece of text in the mod both develops the narrative and provides valuable clues for puzzle solving.
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Narrative is conveyed through both text and visual mediums, such as the LIDAR hologram particle system seen to the right.
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The mod's narrative is carefully integrated into the existing world, matching tone and style and expanding under-explored parts of the base-game's story.
PROCESS
Development was shaped extensively by playtesting and player feedback.
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Throughout development, I ran over a dozen 1-on-1 playtests in which I observed players play through the mod from start to finish.
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Partway through development, an open alpha was released to gather feedback.
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Iteration based on observation and feedback was key to improving the mod as much as possible.
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After release, several updates were released containing bugfixes, adjustments, and new content based on player feedback.
Early iteration of the interior of the core location in the mod.
Early iteration of the exterior in-game.
Later iteration of the exterior in-game.
Early iteration of the interior of the core location in the mod.
TECHNICAL ART
Technical art was key to bringing the mod's environments to life.
Before Tech-Art Pass
After Tech-Art Pass
Release Trailer
Related Projects:
Winning entries in Outer Wilds modding jams.
Evacuation, Reflections, and Root Access all took top spots in several week-long modding competitions against some of the best developers in the Outer Wilds modding community. They can be found here: Evacuation, Reflections, Root Access.
