Reflections

iiiiDesign | 2009

iPhone Game

About

Mismos was a puzzle platforming game that utilized the iPhone’s detection of orientation to change the rules of the game world. The player’s avatar had a reflection that went everywhere it went in a parallel world. By flipping the phone over, users would control the topmost avatar and attempt to move both avatars to their gates.

Mismos’ interaction was designed to be intuitive and easy-to-pick-up by users unfamiliar with the new technology. Puzzles were designed to get progressively harder for immersive gameplay.

Key Highlight

  • Created an intuitive interaction for the primary mechanic of a game built at iiii Design
  • A game focused on exploring vs winning. Users were encouraged to try out things instead of punishing them for wrong behavior
  • Individually prototyped, the team later came together to further develop this in to a product

Process

Prototypes were created in 2-week intervals and were handled individually from concept to creation. Reflection was a prototype I created that was later used to develop Mismos.

Reflection was based off the children’s book, Round Trip, in which, through clever design in black-and-white illustrations, the pages created 2 different environments that could be seen by flipping the book upside down.

In Reflection, I wanted to experiment with this idea of perspective in a 2-D environment. Users would flip the phone upside down to control a new avatar, changing the landscape and, therefore, the experience of the game.

concept sketches of mismos interaction

Sketches of how interaction might work.

concept sketches of level platforming

SSketches of potential puzzles to be created utilizing this mechanic.

Our studio decided to build upon this prototype, exploring other forms of opposites in interaction: visibility vs invisibility, opposing level design, positioning, etc. Mismos was created to test and play with these interactions.

iphone with reflections prototype on the screen

Reflection prototype playthrough.

screenshot of intro level of Mismos with night and day as the opposing sides

Reflections given a "painterly" pass and rebranded and further fleshed out into "Mismos".

an in-development game level of Mismos with visible platforms

A mid-level screenshot with WIP level design