BUGGY DUCKY

Role: Technical Level Designer, Associate Environment Artist

Bugggy Ducky is a puzzle escape-room game where you escape an insane asylum by intentionally breaking the game.
Each room represents a new bug, patch, or exploit. As the player progresses, patch notes alter the world, introducing fixes — but also unintended consequences that make the game even more broken.
The final twist reveals the player is actually the developer, trapped inside their own unfinished build.

Gameplay Video

My Roles

Designed room layouts and puzzle flow to highlight each new “bug” mechanic.

  • Balanced challenge and accessibility by giving players environmental and narrative clues.

  • Worked closely with programmers/artists to ensure glitches felt intentional and fun.

  • Conducted playtesting and iteration to ensure puzzles encouraged experimentation and discovery.

  • Designed the atmosphere and tone of each room through lighting, sound, and environmental storytelling to reinforce the feeling of being trapped in a broken game.

Level Gallery

  • Level 1

  • Level 2

  • Level 3

  • Level 4

Collarboaration Process

The development of Bugggy Ducky was highly collaborative, with our team working remotely across multiple tools:

  • Miro – used for brainstorming puzzle flow, mapping patch note ideas, and sketching room layouts.

  • Google Docs – shared for narrative scripts (patch notes), design documentation, and feedback tracking.

  • Discord – our main hub for day-to-day communication, quick playtest feedback, and progress updates.

  • Git – version control for source code and assets, ensuring smooth iteration and preventing conflicts.

By combining these tools, we maintained a steady workflow despite the short jam timeline, quickly aligning on ideas and iterating on puzzles until they felt polished and fun.

Miro

GitHub

Takeaways

Working on Bugggy Ducky was my first time collaborating with such a large, multi-disciplinary team. It taught me how important clear communication and collaboration are in game development. Coordinating across designers, programmers, artists, and sound designers helped me understand how different disciplines contribute to the whole, and how to adapt my ideas to fit within the team’s vision.

From a level design perspective, I learned how to:

  • Build puzzles around unconventional mechanics (bugs, glitches, FPS drops).

  • Use environmental cues and atmosphere to guide players without explicit instructions.

  • Iterate quickly based on playtest feedback to balance challenge with accessibility.

This project not only strengthened my design and collaboration skills, but also gave me confidence in working with industry-standard tools and processes for future projects.