RUN!
Duration: 7 Months (5 - Pre production) 2 months retrospective changes
Unreal Engine
Team Size: 1
2021
Final Pass
Retrospective changes and polish
2nd Pass engine quality is lowered but lighting is the same as final pass
1st pass: Created during pre-production as a test for the relationship between movement and management,
Design Pillars
Momentum
Management
Focused
Upgrades
Pitch
Core Loop
Traverse
Attack
Control
Areas which need improvement
From a design perspective
Game Feel and Feedback: Improve player understanding of hits, landings, and hookshots by going beyond sounds and VFX to make the interactions clear.
Level Design: Teach basics efficiently, present a challenge, design set pieces more elegantly, and link the thematic elements elegantly.
Management: Successful in showing ammo and its multiple uses, but could have afforded health in more elegant ways like a different way of killing enemies could have afforded health.
Upgrading: Satisfactory, but could show more uses and be designed with more detail for example what else could a hookshot be upgraded to stun enemies?
Responsibilities
Develop a ludic sketch prototype at the end of the project.
Design and script the systems and mechanics of the game.
To show the core mechanics, systems, the core pillars, and a "slice" of the game cohesively and concisely.
To make sure the prototype is polished and highlights the design elements from the documentation.
Ensure the project was commercially viable.
Document design ranging from core mechanics, level design and numeric design
Game Pitch
Present the core game and show elements relating to the core game and the larger idea.
I wanted the game to communicate the core feeling of momentum and management.
Combination moves are a way of conveying momentum and the choices of moves help manage the player's speed.
The meta loop is intended to add "extra" interest and have upgraded movement and weapons throughout the game.
The commercial plan was taken from successful indie and AA games of the last 5-6 years and combined it with social platforms like Tik-Tok to help it approach the younger audience it strives to capture.
This commercial plan expands the reach of my game across social media platforms ensuring that game has a healthy and lengthy lifespan.
Design Pillars
These design pillars are important as they will convey what the essence of the game is and it will bind the mechanics and overall feeling of the game. everything in this project relates to these pillars from art to sound to UI to mechanics. Everything in the design document or the game will relate to these four pillars.
Game Mechanics
I have established the core in the pitch, I need to expand on each of the core loop nodes and the feeling of each specific move. I wanted to communicate the idea of rhythm, combination moves and safety moves. If the player learns the physics of the jump, the timing and overall rhythm, the player can then avoid using the safety moves.
I wanted an overlap between the core loop actions for example, I wanted shooting to contribute to traversal via the knock-back and management with the recoil and characteristics of each weapon (see Numeric Design). I wanted players to be efficient with their choices, finding the balance between fast movement but also landing precise shots so players do not waste their ammo.
The meta loop is used as a method to segment the levels allowing the player to take time to upgrade. Ammo can be used as currency to spend and upgrade.
I wanted the compulsion loop to have the implicit rewards of mastery reinforced with explicit rewards like upgrades this also ties into the upgrades pillar (see GDD)
The enemies shown in the document creates a mix of actions requiring the player to set up a priority list of which enemies to kill first. This is intended to create systemic agency as the enemies gets the players to use various actions to kill them.
Aesthetic
My intention was for the neon lights to subtly guide the player through the level highlighting the futuristic environment. I wanted this neon to extend to the player’s weapons and for it to be the same colour to help the player identify that the neon is also there to guide them.
Sample Levels
The sample levels are in blocks to show what the game would require to make a level and what each area contains.
I wanted to show the characteristics of each area and what they could look like for the game. The challenge was how could I make these areas fit in with the pillars of the game. The documentation details what are the characteristics and how they could address some or all of the pillars.
Numeric Design
