Alan Wake 2 - Side Content
I designed several side content puzzles for Alan Wake 2 to fill out the world. These puzzles can be both grounded in reality and paranormal, depending on where it is located and where we were in the story at that point. Which offered a lot of creative freedom to what the puzzle could be and what the effects of completing a puzzle would have.
Side Content in Alan Wake 2 i worked on includes:
Nursing Rhymes - A childs nursery rhyme, chalk and dolls put together creates a phenomena near you. - Scripting and Design
Cult Stashes - Lock combinations, with answers strewn around in the environment by the Cult of the Tree. - Design
Taxidermy Deer Petting - Pet taxidermy deer heads to unlock paranormal deer, that breaks open a room filled with guns. - Scripting
Voting Campaign - Read all the campaigns to unlock Mayor Setter, a dog you can pet. - Scripting
Likely the first cult stash players run into, so designed to be very simple and teach the rules of cult stashes in a diegetic way, without spelling it out to players.
Nursing rhymes allowed for quirky resolution to completing the puzzle, usually altering the world around you via fiction.
I worked on several side content pieces throughout the game in Brightfalls and Watery, as the game was very open we had to fill that world as much as we could.