CASE STUDY

GAME DESIGN CASE STUDY FALL 2025

Game Designer: Diana Demaj @SUNY WCC ITECH
Project Title: SoulEater
Prototype: 
Course: ITECH 200 Game Design Fall 2025

DESCRIPTION: 

Game Description: A demonic ghost is hungry for souls! The more souls he consumes the stronger he becomes. Help him become king of the Soul World by collecting the souls at haunted graveyards.

Genre: adventure, 2D platformer

Objectives/Goals: Help Mr.Ghost eat all the souls in the haunted graveyard. You earn points for every souls! Cross through the platforms avoiding obstacles.

Audience: Its a game design for all ages, where the controls will be easy to learn for anyone to play the simple surface-level plots. People who like haunted themes will enjoy playing as a ghost.

Players: Single-Player Game; User Plays as Demonic Ghost.

Mr.Ghost is the main character of the game, he travels through the haunted graveyards to collect souls.

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RESEARCH:

I was inspired by games like Hollow Knight and Kirby 64.

While sketching my design I was trying to go for a similar art style as hollow knight, I really liked how the main character looked so I wanted a similar feel to that. I tried to have a similar game play as Kirby games where it’s level based and there’s a high score you can get. I wanted to create a fun 2D platformer game that anyone can play and had a cute, cartoonish spooky theme to it.

CHALLENGES: Some of the challenges I faced was learning how to face was learning a new program. I originally started off on Unity but I started struggling with designing and coding my game. I ended up switching to Godot Engine, which was recommended by a classmate. Coding was my biggest struggle in getting this prototype ready. I’ve taken basic coding classes before but haven’t made projects like platforming games before. Another struggle I had in the beginning was deciding what kind of game I wanted to create. I had a bunch of ideas but was indecisive on what kind of game proposal I wanted to make.

STRATEGY: Game play involves getting used to the players movement and having good timing when getting through the platforms. Mr.Ghost is able to double jump, attack and move around. Players can’t spam click the jump and attack buttons, you have to be able to time your attacks and movements. Collecting all the souls and defeating enemies can help you get a perfect score.

DESIGN APPROACH: I tried to design my Level Design based on how I remembered playing platform games. Growing up, I mostly played platformers and I really enjoyed going through each level. I wanted to design something that I would enjoy playing myself.

I created a simple design to show my ghost collecting souls throughout the platforms in Animate. When I began using Godot, I was able to add details to my level design with animated gifs and changing the environment with my assets made on Procreate.

SUMMARY | RESULTS: –

Overall, I enjoyed designing my game. I loved creating and animating the assets for SoulEater. When I started creating my level, I felt like my artworks were coming together and it visually looked how I wanted it. I didn’t expect to enjoy game design this much. I would actually like to design a new game in my free time just for fun. I learned a lot of new skills from using Godot Engine and Animate, able to bring my game assets to life, making it animated and playable. I would like to be able to learn how to program better in Godot, I only know the basics.

Prototype:
YouTube Video of SoulEater Game Play with UI menu and score results:

Updated game play background 1/10/26