Snowed Under is a short 3D adventure game where you have to struggle through the snow to get to your family in time before the outrageous snowstorm brings you back to where you’ve started.

Snowed Under takes place in a world covered in snow and ice where you can try to find a way to your family by using the world and the mechanics in your advantage. Our design goal has always been to tempt the player to cause the phenomenon called ‘intended emergent gameplay’.

Emergent Gameplay is a phenomenon that arises from a basal game structure by combining simple rules. This creates complexity and unpredicted patterns of a system. Simply put; results that the developer wouldn’t expect to happen by combining interaction between the player and the game. It is a common word used in the Game Industry, with popular games as “Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, “Minecraft” and “Just Cause” that made excellent use of Emergent Gameplay.

Intended Emergent Gameplay comes from gameplay that has been designed to cause Emergent Gameplay. This form of emergent gameplay is planned but always comes in unexpected forms. 

A more in-depth document on how to tempt the player to cause emergent gameplay through level design in Dutch can be found below.