LITTLE CITIES DIORAMA
What is Little Cities: Diorama
Classic city building with a cozy colourful twist - reimagined for mixed reality! Relax into a sandbox of endless creative possibilities as Apple Vision Pro seamlessly brings Little Cities into your own world.Embarking on your city creation journey has never been easier, with intuitive gesture controls and extremely satisfying bubble poppin’ UI.De-stress with some low stakes island hopping with a gorgeous range of biomes and environments to explore, all set to a blissed-out soundtrack.Craft your dream islands at home with a bustling blend of shops, industry, housing and all-manner of outlandish attractions, and lean in to see your diorama creations spring to life.
Features
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Build cute cities within the comfort of your room.
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Watch them grow and develop as they get more and more complex.
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Beware of natural disasters that could hinder your progress.
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Use hand tracking to control all aspects of the game.
Main Contributions
Designing Picturesque Demo Islands for use within the onboarding process.
Overhauling existing Controls and Camera functionality to function within Mixed Reality.
Creating the onboarding tutorials and all associated assets.
Supporting Engineering with Rapid prototyping and iteration.
Optimising Art Assets including VFX and Models.
Reworking the progression system to feel fun and intuitive on each island while remaining true to the Little Cities experience.
Responsibilities
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Creating template level for a maximum level city to showcase gameplay at higher progression levels feature all unlockable elements and a perfect start rating.
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Creating a sand biome template to allow a quickstart for users to make their dream sandy village and play with the unique desert biome requirements such as sandstorms.
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Creating a Grass biome template to allow a quickstart for users to make their dream tropical island. Accompanied with volcano hazards.
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Creating a snow biome template to allow a quickstart for users to make their dream winter wonderland complete with avalanches.
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Creating bespoke trailer island templates to be used when recording footage
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Communicating with branding and marketing teams to define trailer requirements
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Assisting teams in playthroughs and Apple Vision Pro Headset controls to record high quality footage and achieve high quality renders
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Creating documentation on the functionality of gameplay mechanics
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Iterating on proposals to adapt VR based mechanics to Mixed Reality
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Documenting processes and workflows in order to map the future workflow of projects
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Communicating with Apple stakeholders in feedback meeting and answering questions based on the design direction of the game
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Communicating with the original developers Purple Yonder in catchup meetings adressing feedback received
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Rebalancing progression to account for the reduced island size and allow for a fun and interactive play session.
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Redesigning game controls to improve accessibility and improve compatibility with hand tracking technology.
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Playtesting and iterating on changes made via the use of Xcode and Mac Builds
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Performing research on existing Apple Vision Pro titles and comparing functionality and implementation of mechanics to find appropriate solutions to Little Cities gameplay
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Optimising 3d models for Apple vision pro by reducing poly counts.
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Optimising code to remove dependencies not used within mixed reality.
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Adjustments of Ui colour to improve accessibility.
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Providing feedback and reviews with Artist to maintain visual fidelity with the original title.
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Providing feedback and check ins with the code team to maintain consistent functionality across all Little Cities titles.
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Creating regular builds via Xcode for internal and external playtesting
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Template Islands
Level Overview
For Little Cities: Diorama, I designed and implemented four distinct template islands spanning Tropical, Volcanic, Arid Desert, and Festive Winter themes. Beyond environment creation, I developed a fully optimized, max-level 'Hero City' to serve as the gold standard for player reference and sandbox inspiration. Throughout development, I worked closely with Studio NearLight’s proprietary toolset, providing critical design feedback to help refine and optimize their Apple Vision Pro development pipeline.
Responsibilities
Full Layout from concept to release
Testing progression and balancing
Responsible for handover between departments
Organizing playtest sessions for the Apple Vision Pro
Collating and actioning user playtest feedback
Level Design Goals
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Biome-Specific Templates: Authored intuitive starting islands for each biome, integrating dynamic world events such as sandstorms, avalanches, and eruptions to enhance gameplay variety.
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Natural Progression: Leveraged terrain design to ensure players can experience the full suite of game features natively, eliminating the necessity for terraforming tools.
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Brand Cohesion: Maintained strict adherence to the Little Cities design language, ensuring visual and mechanical consistency with previous entries in the series.
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Replayability through Shape Language: Utilized inviting island silhouettes to encourage exploration and repeated playthroughs.