Red Tide
Game Designer | Level Designer | Writer | Project Manager
Red Tide is a story-driven, educational adventure game where you play as a young man stranded on a mysterious island. Guided by a robotic bird, you must catalog the island’s fish species—until you uncover a deadly environmental cycle known as the Red Tide. With marine life at risk, your mission becomes more than just discovery—it’s survival, science, and solving an ecological mystery.
Fishing Mechanic
Experience the thrill of fishing as you select your spot and cast your bait into the water. Watch as the fish gradually gather around your lure, indicated by the transition of the circle from red to green.
Utilize the precision of the left stick on your controller to align the red circle with the center, triggering it to turn green, signifying a hooked catch. Then, with finesse, press the right trigger while keeping the red dot centered to reel in the fish.
As you skillfully maneuver, the bar fills up, marking your progress. Once it reaches the top, celebrate your successful catch as the fish is reeled in triumphantly
Fishing
3 types of Fishing Rods, 6 Baits and the world is filled with 3 different Habitats.
Some fishes can only be caught using a fishing rod connected with the right bait. Attach the right bait and use the right rod to catch the fishes. As time goes, you will know how to catch the fishes.
These rods and baits can either be bought or found, if you’re lucky.
Studying Animals
Dynamic Wildlife Interaction System
Red Tide introduces a deeply immersive and strategic animal behavior and cure mechanic designed for players to study, heal, and interact with wildlife in a hostile, infection-ridden environment. This unique system merges stealth gameplay, observation-based decision-making, and reactive AI behavior to create meaningful, risk-driven interactions with both ferocious and sensitive animals.
Players encounter various creatures, including Tasmanian Tigers, Komodo Dragons, Ring-tailed Lemurs, and Galápagos Sea Lions, each falling into categories of ferocious or sensitive animals. Depending on the creature’s temperament and infection status, players must choose tailored strategies to either:
Observe and study infection patterns,
Administer cures using stealth or environmental manipulation,
Or engage in evasive maneuvers when animals react aggressively.
The mechanic dynamically branches based on player actions:
Ferocious animals may chase players, requiring them to tranquilize and cure them or escape by finding hiding spots.
Sensitive animals react to noise, prompting players to use stealth tactics and silently track behavior without triggering alerts.
An alternative approach involves using herbal agents in habitats to calm creatures or bait them with food sources laced with the cure.
Every choice influences whether the animal runs away, becomes alert, or attacks, adding layers of risk-reward tension and replayability.
This system not only promotes eco-conscious gameplay but enhances AI-driven environmental storytelling through non-lethal interaction, disease tracking, and adaptive animal behavior.
Robot Pigeon
The Robot Pigeon is a feathered companion in the game, who brings task in and out every day. If you want to buy something, you can give money to him and he will deliver it to you.
The task for the day comes in every morning and once you submit the completed task form to the Pigeon, he will take it back and return the next day with the attained credits from the tasks.
Weather System
Experience a groundbreaking dynamic weather control system where player actions shape the environment! In this immersive gameplay feature, players can influence weather patterns such as rain, sunshine, and hail through a strategic offering system. Utilize Item A and Item B at shrines to activate manipulative weather changes, selecting specific zones or map regions to target with effects like hailstones or rainfall.
Unlock the power of the skies — control the weather, master the world.
While natural weather shifts follow a calendar cycle, including sunny and rainy days, players can override nature using shrine-based manipulation. With limited player choices, the system offers interactive depth and replayability as weather alters regional and island-wide conditions. Perfect for open-world exploration, resource management, or strategic combat scenarios, this mechanic blends environmental storytelling with player agency like never before.
Calendar
The yellow circles represent Sunny, Blue is Rainy and the Red Star is when the Red Tide appears on the beach.
The Red Tide appears on the South Beach in the island for two days per week. In our case, day 5 and day 6.
Tasks require the player to catch a fish that comes out in the middle of the night only if it’s raining. In our case, the player has to set the alarm to some time past midnight to catch that particular fish.
Three types of weather surrounding the island’s atmosphere. Sunny, Rainy and Hailstones.
Concept Art
Character Artist Name
Perry
Fishing Rod Artist Name
Ivana
Level 1 rod poses challenges for fishing, while Levels 2 and 3 offer improved capabilities.
Each rod requires specific bait for optimal results, enhancing the fishing experience
Fish Artist Name
Asli Ozkan
Environmental Artist Name
Thomas
This is where the game begins, with the player waking up with no idea where he is.
He is unaware about the adventure that awaits him in this mysterious island.
Narrative Design
Story Structure
Act 1
The Fishes
Ricky wakes up in an island unknown to him with no memory of how he got there. A bird, who seems to recognize him, takes him to a lighthouse where he discovers that he was a Ichthyologist and was sent here by the government to research about peculiar fishes in this island. His diary says that he already has discovered 5 fishes and has 10 more to go - then he can get off this island. When he asks why doesn’t he remember everything, he says that Ricky left him before entering then restricted area and he has no idea what happened in there.
Although he was curious, Ricky just wanted to finish this and go home.
Premise
Red Tide is a story-driven, educational adventure game where you play as a young man stranded on a mysterious island. Guided by a robotic bird, you must catalog the island’s fish species—until you uncover a deadly environmental cycle known as the Red Tide. With marine life at risk, your mission becomes more than just discovery—it’s survival, science, and solving an ecological mystery.
Act 2
The Animals
Red Tide is a story-driven, educational adventure game where you play as a young man stranded on a mysterious island. Guided by a robotic bird, you must catalog the island’s fish species—until you uncover a deadly environmental cycle known as the Red Tide. With marine life at risk, your mission becomes more than just discovery—it’s survival, science, and solving an ecological mystery.