DAIJYA ROBINSON
Game Design and Development For The Future
The Noble Adventure
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With your queen missing and an evil wizard at fault, it is up to you to restore order. Are you up for the task? The Noble Adventure is a 2D fantasy puzzle RPG where the player is tasked with finding their beloved Queen after a wizard kidnaps her. Travel to various villages to gather leads, identify accessibility barriers, and use inclusive tools to communicate with the villagers.
The Game's Development
I. High Concept
The goal of The Noble Adventure was to create a 2D fantasy puzzle RPG in which the player, as the Queen's loyal knight, must find the beloved Queen after a wizard kidnaps her and robs the kingdom of its happiness. I designed the game to highlight disabilities often overlooked in gaming. By incorporating puzzles that teach one accessibility barrier related to dyslexia, from letter swapping and reading fatigue to visual crowding and processing delays, The Noble Adventure offers players a chance to understand accessibility not as a menu option, but as a core game mechanic.
The Noble Adventure Gameplay
II. Genre
The Noble Adventure is a 2D fantasy puzzle RPG played on PC. The objective is to gather leads, identify accessibility barriers, and use inclusive tools to communicate with villagers. I focused on narrative-driven exploration and low-stakes quests so that the core theme of accessibility remains the focus during each playthrough.
III. Aesthetics
The Noble Adventure offers a gameplay experience reminiscent of storybook fantasy games, characterized by its whimsical art and muted color palette. Due to being a solo developer, I used free assets to create a functional village environment, selecting an asset pack that fits the magical theme with soft colors, fantasy architecture, and a storybook atmosphere. I animated all characters using Unity's animation tool, adjusting their color palettes in Photoshop before importing. The player will see the Knight in a bright red hooded cloak, while NPCs use muted colors to allow the main character to stand out more brightly on screen, helping players quickly locate their character without intrusive UI markers.
IV. Gameplay
Mechanics
Other than the interactive dialog and fetch quests, The Noble Adventure doesn't have too many unique mechanics. As a solo developer, I built the game in Unity using C#. I designed the dialog system to visually distort text, letters jumbled, words shaking, appearing to "fly off" the page, to simulate the experience of dyslexia. After the player completes a puzzle, they are given a fetch quest for an NPC, and the NPC's dialogue updates to reflect progress. This linear, progression-gated structure ensures that players cannot skip past the core accessibility experience. The result is a straightforward game that can be enjoyed by players who seek purposeful narrative experiences, regardless of their familiarity with puzzle games.
Protoype
Final Version
Final Flying Word Puzzle
Final Grammar Puzzle
Final Combination Puzzle
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Control Page
Control
To play the game, the player uses their keyboard to navigate the Knight. I implemented WASD controls for movement after early playtesting revealed that a point-and-click movement system created too many bugs. The E key picks up items, C interacts with NPCs, and Tab, Enter, or the mouse opens and interacts with the UI. This change made exploration easier to conduct, which was critical for a game about understanding another person's perspective.
Onboarding
To guide players in learning how to play the game, I built a Movelist screen accessible from the main menu. This section displays all controls and basic movement. During gameplay, players can open the Moves Menu through the pause menu to remind themselves what actions their character can do without breaking the game's flow. Additionally, I included accessibility features: no button mashing challenges, adjustable text size in the Settings menu, and a clear, simple font (Nihonium) chosen after playtesting showed the original font (Yoster) was still difficult for some players with and without dyslexia.
Objective Page
V. Playtesting & Research
The Noble Adventure is different that my other projects due to the fact that the game started off as my senior capstone that then turned into my personal project. I did penalty of background research to ensure my message is being told. Gameplay development was guided through continuous playtesting, which taught me to focus on the core message of the game rather than feature creep. I consulted with the Disability Services Office (DSO) at RIT to accurately represent dyslexia. Research showed that dyslexic players can experience text as "jumbled," "letters flying off the page," or "reading a different language," so I translated this into interactive textboxes that visually distort during NPC dialogue.
Font readability became a major adjustment after testing with players with and without dyslexia. I moved from Yoster to Nihonium after feedback showed that the original font was still difficult to parse. Additionally, testers helped me recognize that one puzzle did not accurately represent dyslexia; players compared it to a standard hidden-object game rather than the experience of jumbled or scrambled text. I cut that puzzle entirely to prevent distraction from the other dyslexia-focused mini-games.
Beyond the game itself, I authored a research paper titled "Leadership Advocacy For Accessibility Within Gaming," which explores leadership tactics for embedding accessibility in game development through UI/UX design and programming. The paper examines how developers can provide evidence-based advocacy to break down misconceptions that accessibility is too costly or niche.
Playtesting and research reinforced that every mechanic must serve the game's goal of representing accessibility barriers. The switch to WASD, the font change, the puzzle cuts, and the DSO consultation were all direct results of this iterative, research-driven process.
The Noble Adventure Gameplay
VI. Goal of Game
Players are motivated to find the beloved Queen and restore happiness to the kingdom. Additionally, every puzzle teaches one accessibility barrier, and players observe how NPCs continue their daily lives with dyslexia. These two features make The Noble Adventure a purposeful narrative experience where success is measured not just by completing quests, but by understanding why accessibility matters.
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Title Page
The Noble Adventure Gameplay
Credit Page