Haven
Sound Designer | Composer
Sound Designer | Composer
Haven mini documentary created post-run by UChicago's College
Haven is a web-based visual novel-style multiplayer roleplaying game designed over the summer of 2024 for the University of Chicago. Haven sought to introduce incoming freshman to many of the new experiences and opportunities they would have as a student at the University of Chicago. This included compelling discussions and interactions with classmates, collaborative puzzle solving, educational minigames, managing a class schedule, and more! It was built from the ground up over the course of roughly 10 weeks, with the game rolling out gradually by chapters over three separate releases within that timeline.
The game takes place within Haven Academy, a lively solarpunk higher education university separated into four shoals, which represent the different aspects of learning. Artificial Island represents STEM fields, Oceanic Island represents the humanities, Tidal Island represents the political sciences, and Coral Island represents the arts. Each island is stylistically and thematically different, having their own UI elements, music, classroom design, font, and color palette.
Logistically, the game was split into 5 chapters released over three different release dates. Chapters 1 and 2 introduced players to the game and its world as a more singleplayer, narrative-driven experience, Chapter 3 is an open-world exploration of Haven Academy, and Chapters 4 and 5 served as a return-to-form conclusion for the players.
Because of our small team, I filled a couple of different niches throughout the course of the game. I was hired as one of three people on the Puzzle Design team, but as the game evolved, my job shifted into more of a general Game Designer position. Eventually it went through another evolution and it was decided that music and sound design were a larger component than expected, so I additionally took on this role. This page will detail my experience as a Composer and Sound Designer; please visit this page to view my work as a game and puzzle designer.
Recording voice acting with a member of the puzzle design team