In Reefquest, set in the same universe as Pillow’s Willow – VR studio’s succesful ‘Spark of Light’, you play as a girl in a blue onesie on a quest to clean the ocean pollution. Using your sea-creature friends, which all have their own unique mechanics and meaningful interactions, you become more aware about the actual state of sea pollution in a playful and engaging way. Reefquest is a vertical slice of the final game which is still in development.

I had the amazing opportunity to work on Reefquest during my time at Pillow’s Willow as a Game & Level Designer. My responsibilities were to design and prototype new mechanics, gameplay scenario’s, and to my utmost joy, a boss-fight. The eventual success of the final boss-fight design once again confirmed to me the utmost importance of playtesting and iteration. Not just at a design level, but with every discipline in the studio, as a collaborative process. It was a true joy to work with the team on an epic decisive event as a boss-fight, figuring out how to overcome challenges like how to non-verbally explain to the player the different boss-stages and each sea creature’s interaction with the boss, as well as how to use the freedom and depth the sea gives in combination with VR.

At a later stage, I was also responsible for designing different game-modes and mini-games for a potential multiplayer party-game adaptation. The designs were heavily focussed on player teamwork or competition, which was a challenge using primarily the already existing mechanics. During this period I learned the value of and how to collaboratively research and brainstorm effectively.