Dora The Explorer -

Dora Saves The Mermaids

Design Director and Lead Designer - Totally Games

Dora The Explorer - Dora Saves the Mermaids
This was a challenge on many fronts. First of all, the puzzles all needed to have no-fail conditions. So even if the player misses, the player can still proceed after 3 failed tries. 

Duties

• Worked closely with the publisher and licensor on the project’s particulars regarding the Dora IP.

• Implemented 1/3 of the levels and lead the design team, programmers, artists, and animators.

We needed to give the player a sense of exploration while keeping the player on a rail. Thanks to the relatively simple geometry we were working with, we could make use of long draw distances and give the player a sense of deep exploration by seeing where they were going well before the player got there. 

And, like any IP, Dora had a very strict set of rules to adhere to. That said, we were able to inject quite a bit of gameplay and puzzles into this game along with lots of moments of delight for our young players.