Whilst I wasn’t part of the core Grow Home team, I was involved in numerous design discussions and playtests from conception to release. I made a number of key observations that had a substantial influence on the final game. I suggested improvements to the way gameplay objects were tutorialised by using their initial state to imply interaction behaviours, and for more advanced users, I proposed that the teleporter be used to transfer a variety of gameplay objects to enhance the systemic nature of the world. Both of these helped to onboard players and hint towards experimentation without mitigating the puzzle elements.

For controls, I proposed that the climbing mechanics use both trigger and shoulder buttons to improve comfort and better utilise the pad layout. Finally, I suggested that the mechanics for riding the beanstalk should feel like Falkor from The Neverending Story, helping to improve the tactile feel and accessibility whilst also providing a soundbite that was often used to describe the feature in promotional content.