Alibi
January 2025 - May 2025
Mechanics Designer
Project Details
USC Interactive Media MFA Thesis project team of 20+ undergraduate and graduate students
Game Overview
Narrative‑driven mystery adventure following a trainee therapist returning to her Chinese high school to uncover the disappearance of her childhood friend. Through point‑and‑click environmental investigation, consequential dialogue puzzles, and immersive side‑scrolling memory sequences, players rebuild fractured recollections, unlock emotional barriers, and piece together a web of bullying, betrayal, and systemic pressures. Instead of solving a case through judgment, Alibi invites players to understand the emotional and systemic roots of others' choices.
As a designer, my goal was to create systems and game mechanics that weaved player interactions with storytelling. In such a narrative-heavy game, I strived to design systems that allowed players to easily follow the story while still feeling in control. Throughout the process, I focused on clear communication of my designs, creating visualization guides to better the pipeline from ideation to implementation.
My contributions included:
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Notebook System
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goal:
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showcase main character's ability to enter others' memories
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provide transition between present gameplay & past side-scroller
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thematically add to main character's role as a therapist
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created slideshows for visualization and showing interaction flow
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made concept art sketches
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weekly iterations with feedback from Creative Director
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Map Prototype
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designed visuals and interactions for Map feature
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made initial concept art as reference for artists
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created prototype of interaction flow in Figma
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UI Interaction Flow
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establish UI placement for all levels as reference for engineers in Figma
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Screenshot of Figma Prototypes
Including: main menu mockup,
map prototype, notebook interactions,
pause menu mockup, in-game UI placement, etc.
Initial Map Concept Art
Initial Notebook Sketch
