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ISART Digital · Paris · Mar 2023

Be Silent

Role
Game Designer
Studio / Context
ISART Digital · Paris · Team
Duration
Mar 2023
Platform
Board Game
Be Silent box cover mockup
Be Silent box mockup
Be Silent cards mockup
Be Silent player board
Be Silent board overview
Be Silent monster
Be Silent characters
Be Silent hostel tile
Be Silent parking tile
Be Silent tile
Be Silent room card
Be Silent center element
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Description

Be Silent is a co-operative board game where you are a prey on an unpredictable randomly-generated board. A scientist is lost in another dimension, your team must reach them and bring them back alive, all while managing noise, enemies and limited resources.

I designed the game in full, concept, rules, all mechanics, every system and every piece of content.

My Contributions
Game Concept
Wrote the full game concept, setting, tone, core loop and design intent, establishing the experience from the ground up.
Rulebook
Wrote the complete rulebook, structuring all rules clearly for players encountering the game for the first time.
Modular Level Design
Designed the full modular tile system for the board, tiles that combine randomly to create a different board each game, ensuring replayability and unpredictability.
Mechanics & Systems
Created all core mechanics: player turn structure (action / enemy activation / noise cleanup / event card / noise counter advancement), the noise system, the Matriarch activation counter, item system and event cards.
Character Design
Created all six character classes (Military, Doctor, Cartographer, Engineer, Coward, Metal Detector), each with a unique specialty, a secret solo objective and an 8-slot inventory.
Content Creation
Designed all enemies, all items, all event cards and all character sheets, the complete content layer of the game.
Key Design Decisions
  • The noise counter building toward the Matriarch was designed to create mounting dread without arbitrary time pressure, players can see the threat approaching and choose whether to move faster or play more carefully.
  • Secret solo objectives within a co-op game create internal tension: every player wants the team to succeed, but each also has a personal goal that might conflict. That tension was the heart of the design.
  • Modular board design required every tile to function both in isolation and in combination, tested systematically across hundreds of random configurations to ensure no combination created an unsolvable or trivially easy layout.
Skills
Game ConceptRules DesignSystem DesignLevel DesignCharacter DesignContent DesignBoard Game
Context
SchoolTeamBoard GameCo-opHidden Roles
Links
Trailer YouTube
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