The Nestmind is a 3D top-down shooter with third-person control. You wake up on a sterile operating table, memory wiped, but cursed with the power to return from death. As fragmented thoughts emerge, a single voice cuts through the haze: escape. You will fight through hostile threats and use your unnatural resilience to find a way out.

The game’s core theme is “Fail One More Time.” During early development, we broke down this concept to guide our gameplay direction and core mechanics.

To me, “Fail One More Time” means each failure moves the player closer to success. This naturally led us to roguelike structures, where repeated runs lead to persistent meta-progression. Players improve gradually through iteration, eventually overcoming challenges that once felt impossible.

During ideation, I proposed using the player’s corpse as a key mechanic tied to the core theme. After each death, the body would remain in the world and could be reused as cover or a weapon. This established a gameplay loop where failure leaves behind persistent, tactical resources.

Once this mechanic became central to the design, we defined our experience goal: encourage players to pause, observe, and plan each move. We explored directions like RTS and roguelike structures, but ultimately chose a top-down puzzle shooter. This format best supported deliberate decision-making and fit our production scope.




2. DESIGN

---

With the experience goal and core mechanic defined, we shifted focus to refining gameplay systems. In The Nestmind, health is a core resource that players must manage carefully. It is the sole way to replenish ammo, and intentional self-sacrifice is required to create corpses for solving puzzles.

As a result, managing health, choosing when to die, and deciding where to leave a body become core strategic decisions. Survival is no longer the primary goal, but death becomes a deliberate tool in the player’s arsenal.

Therefore we have the core gameplay loop.

Once the core mechanics were defined and validated through prototyping, we built a narrative framework around the game. The surreal nature of the systems aligned closely with the SCP universe, which inspired the narrative theme: an experimental subject attempting to escape.

3. PRODUCTION

---

During production, level design became the project’s primary focus. Enemy placement, resource distribution, and puzzle design together shaped the core player experience. Instead of emphasizing moment-to-moment action, the game’s pacing, tension, and strategic choices were driven by how these elements were arranged within each level.

Zoning and spatial planning were the starting point of our level design process. To support the SCP-inspired theme and narrative context, we framed the environment as a working experimental facility. The space was divided into distinct areas such as reception zones, containment rooms, and operational corridors.

After defining functional zones, playtime, and core mechanics, we moved on to blockout. We first mapped the player’s main traversal paths, then used them to refine the internal structure of each area, including enemy placement and reward locations. As the environment represents an experimental lab, the connections between zones had to feel logical and grounded. At the same time, we allowed creative flexibility to support the game’s difficulty curve and core systems.

The diagram above shows our approach to detail refinement after blockout. To fully integrate core mechanics into the level, we made precise measurements and adjustments in engine. We calculated spatial values such as platform gaps to ensure movement, puzzle logic, and player choices behaved as intended. This process turned abstract design goals into functional, playable spaces that supported both mechanics and difficulty progression.

4. REFLECTION

---

This project taught me how to systematically develop a complete game under a tight production timeline. From concept pitching and design documentation to level sketching, blockout, implementation, and polish, each phase contributed to my growth as a designer. Beyond the core systems, we also focused on using art assets to guide player attention and iterated level layouts based on playtest feedback.

Given the compressed schedule, the difficulty curve still needs refinement. Some puzzles feel repetitive, which may impact long-term engagement. However, the corpse-based mechanic has strong untapped potential. Features like carrying, stacking, or triggering chain reactions could greatly expand the puzzle space.

With further iteration, these systems could support more complex and layered challenges. I believe the project lays a solid foundation for deeper mechanical depth and future expansion.