The Adblocker is a stealth game where you must sneak into the offices
of a company that’s flooding the world with pop-ups and destroy their servers.
In a near future where everyone is wearing XR visors to better browse
the internet, big companies constantly produce and share pop-ups to
advertise their products directly to the eyes of both the public and
their own workers. The protagonist decides to infiltrate one of these
companies, to end the AI that took over their operations.
The player must get through each floor without being noticed by the workers.
Over time, they will also receive pop-ups to block their vision and
threaten their cover: they have to be manually closed, but some can
also be shared with the workers, turning them from a hindrance into a tool.
I was one of two game designers working on the project. My main responsibilities, aside from updating the GDD and keeping weekly progress logs, were designing the Pop-ups and UI/UX. I also contributed some level design.
Pop-up examples
When the player approaches Transmitters, pop-ups will appear on their screen.
Clicking on the “close” button will remove them, while the “share” button allows
them to be passed onto enemies or objects in the scene. Sharable pop-ups exist
in three types, each with a different use: image (block the enemy’s vision for
a few seconds), audio (attract enemies towards them), and object (block enemies’ path).
The Adblocker revolves around pop-ups. They serve as both the main conflict and
main mechanic of the game. It was important that they be balanced properly,
resulting in an interesting obstacle that's fun to interact with. Interaction
with them is required frequently to proceed, and the sharing method is easy and intuitive.
A transmitter sending sharable pop-ups
The pop-ups were designed to emulate real-life pop-up ads, both in appearance and function:
they are big and numerous, quickly covering the screen with bright graphics if left unchecked.
To regulate their frequency and control the flow of gameplay, they can only be received
from Transmitters, deliberately placed around the environment to best suit the level design.
Each Transmitter always shares the same types of pop-ups, indicated by the colour of the
light it casts, in regular intervals, allowing the player to strategise.
This way we could also ensure that the player always has access to the pop-ups required
to beat the level, even if they close the first one they receive.
As is expected of spam, pop-ups in The Adblocker are colourful and often garish, serving to catch the player’s attention and act as small distractions. They often include jokes and amusing references. Still, to avoid them becoming overwhelming and confusing the player when they need to interact with them, they are generally consistent in colour and layout, and the "calls to action" they contain are clearly distinct from the actual clickable buttons used in the game. In addition, the different types of sharable pop-ups are identified by their dominating colour, making them clearly recognisable. I worked closely with the Concept Art department to develop the pop-ups’ visual identity, test numerous variations, and adapt them to gameplay needs.
The pop-up motif was also integrated in the game’s menus, though adapted to be cleaner and more easily readable. Each menu is depicted as a pop-up, with every option to exit a menu or quit the game being represented by the unmistakable “X” atop most pop-ups, mirroring the action frequently performed during gameplay.
Level 2 first layout
Each level was designed with the purpose of teaching the player about one or more aspects of the game, acting as one part of the skill chain. Starting from the relative skill, the floor layout was then developed, adding enemies and transmitters to determine the player’s expected route and force interaction with the newly introduced mechanic. The level was then built in engine, and tweaked after testing.
