Breaking Game
Developing Breaking Game from an early Unity prototype.
The project began as a simple Unity village assembled from existing assets. Once destructibility became the core idea, the project was rebuilt around that direction and my role grew from testing into game and product design, including progression and onboarding.
The problem
A simple Unity village suggested a bigger idea: make the environment destructible, then work out what kind of game should exist around that mechanic.
What I did
My role grew from testing into game and product design. I worked on loops, levels, progression, tutorial flow, player feedback, balancing and re-scoping with a developer and artist.
Where it ended
The team built a substantial prototype and design archive. The project did not ship.
01 · Starting point
Turning the starting scene into a new game project.
From the first builds onward, I kept playing the current version, noticing what felt unclear or broken, changing the design and testing again. Later that grew into more deliberate playtest notes, balancing work and a planned controlled alpha.
How the project evolved
Starting scene
Premade village, character and weapon.
Destructibility
The environment becomes the central mechanic.
Core loop
Movement, destruction and player feedback.
Systems
Weapons, upgrades, progression and levels.
Onboarding
Tutorial flow and planned controlled alpha.
The starting scene already had a village, a character and a weapon. I proposed making the environment destructible. Once that became the central direction, we had to build the project around it rather than simply modify the existing scene.
Movement, destruction, progression and the other game systems developed from that point. The pre-made assets explain where the idea started, but the substantial prototype was rebuilt around the new concept.
02 · Learning the pipeline
Learning the tools and pipeline needed for the project.
The primary developer handled implementation and a 3D art collaborator later handled visual production. To keep contributing to the design, I learned enough about Unity, Unreal, Blender, meshes, physics, assets and production pipelines to understand constraints, test possibilities and communicate clearly with the people building them.
The project also needed structure around the work. We used the shared Miro board to hold references, tasks, systems, level ideas and decisions as the prototype became more complex.
Collaboration boundary
I was not the programmer, Unreal developer or 3D artist. My contribution was the game and product-design side: testing, systems, progression, levels, onboarding, balancing and coordination around those decisions.
03 · Design ownership
Taking ownership of the game-design side.
I kept QA-ing builds, but increasingly I was also deciding what should happen next. I took ownership of the design side and worked across the core loop, weapons and upgrades, progression, player stats, puzzles, levels, game flow and repeated re-scoping as the prototype changed.
Role expansion
Testing
Play builds and identify friction.
Systems
Define loops, stats and progression.
Levels
Shape puzzles, pacing and game flow.
Onboarding
Design tutorial logic and failure states.
04 · Onboarding
Designing the tutorial and onboarding flow.
For the planned alpha, I designed a tutorial room that introduced the game one action at a time: pick up a weapon, break a wall, discover the soul system, solve a small spatial problem, find an upgrade, switch weapons and reach the final progression gate.
The design also accounted for predictable mistakes. Trying to break a wall without a weapon produced feedback; the pressure-plate room allowed more than one solution; an accidental trap had a delayed fail-safe; and later progression stayed locked until the player had encountered the mechanics it depended on.
05 · Outcome
Project outcome.
By the end, the project had moved far beyond the original village scene: a destruction-centered core loop, progression systems, weapons and upgrades, level ideas, tutorial flow, repeated testing and a large design archive.
Scope and coordination problems eventually overtook the project and we stopped before release.
Shai Deutsch 