Previous/Student projects
This page contains design work and prototypes I did back as a student. Both projects done in undergrad and graduate education can be seen here.
Spectroids is a rapid prototype game that a group of teammates and I worked on, during my Fall 2009 semester at FIEA. It is a fast-paced, arcade style twitch game made in Flash. The object of the game here is pilot a alien spacecraft around the screen, collecting colored space rocks for fuel. The color of the rock collected has to match the current color of the spacecraft’s force field (a colored ring that can be seen around the spacecraft), which will allow the ring to expand in size. The ring is constantly shrinking however, and touching a rock of the wrong color makes the ring shrink even faster. If the ring shrinks all the way to nothing, the player’s spacecraft explodes. A player must collect all rocks on the screen in order to advance to the next level. Later levels introduce power-ups including bombs which blow up rocks on screen, and additional hazards like mines which kill the player instantly.
My role on this project was level and mechanics design. I was responsible for the level parameters and progression of difficulty on the initial version of the game.
the game is available to play online here.
Eclipse is a student game that I worked on at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. One of FIEA Cohort 6’s large scale game projects, Eclipse completed development in August 2010. It is a 3rd person, team-based multiplayer title, developed using the Gamebryo engine. Players take the role of one of two warring tribes, either a tribe of sun-worshipers or a tribe of moon-worshipers.
Both tribes had tentatively co-existed for many years, with one tribe ruling over the day, and the other, the night. However, a supernatural eclipse has occurred and it has been neither day nor night for many years. Both tribes have interpreted this event as a sign that their gods are warring with each other and both believe that balance cannot be restored unless one tribe completely vanquishes the other. A curtain of light and shadow cast by the eclipse is constantly on the field of battle, and through victory in combat, either the light or the darkness engulfs more of the map. The object is for one tribe to get it’s element all the way across the map to the opposing side’s deity statue, thereby destroying the opposing tribe’s god and demoralizing the opposing tribe.
The core emphasis of Eclipse is on the thrill of hunting and stalking of other players more so than the actual moment of the kill. We strive to convey the thrill of chasing down an opponent, and simultaneously a sense of anxiety that at any time someone is also hunting you. There are three different classes that players can choose and each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. Players must work as a team and really utilize the true deadliest weapon, the environment itself, in order to effectively eliminate the opposing team.
An added challenge comes from our environmental visual impairment mechanic, in which players vision is impeded while venturing into the opposing tribe’s territory. Sun Tribe members become shrouded in darkness, while moon tribe members become surrounded by blinding glare.
I wore two hats in the development of Eclipse. In the initial development, in pre-production, I was an environmental and level designer, responsible for coming up with initial jungle environments to serve as a battleground. This involved determining the size and layout of levels, and the placement of assets for both mechanical and aesthetic purposes. Some of the level design work that I did in the Gamebryo Toolbench editor is available to see under the level designs/mods section of my portfolio.
My second role on the project was as a systems designer, specifically on the combat system. During production, the most challenging aspect of creating the combat system for our game was creating a system that encourages sneak attacks from behind, guerrilla tactics, evasion, and retreat.
Our combat system uses the concept of directional “kill zones” rather than a straight up hit point system, and the direction an opponent is attacked from, determines whether they are killed instantly, or simply wounded. The “kill zone” starts at the back of the player and every wound subsequently increases the “kill zone” radius until the point at which the entire 360 degree circle around the player is an instant kill.
The reason behind this system was to create combat where stealth, and sneak attacking from behind is encouraged, and to avoid players simply duking it out from the front. We wanted to encourage strategy use of tactics and surprise to win. Wounds are permanent in our game, there is no healing. Therefore players need to treat their life as valuable and carefully plan out when and where to attack.
You can Check out more about Eclipse here.
RoadKill (Level Mod)
“RoadKill” is a rapid prototyping level design assignment that I made for one of my classes at FIEA. Made in Epic’s Unreal Tournament 3 editor, it is a vehicle-based multiplayer deathmatch match game set in a post-apocalyptic cityscape, in the style of titles like Twisted Metal. Rather than carry weapons on foot, players use a variety of vehicles scattered around the map to blow each other up in a free-for-all deathmatch.
The art assets used are all native to the Unreal Editor, except for the floating spaceship model, which was made by my friend and fellow FIEA classmate, Patti Gomes.
300: The Board Game (undergrad student project)
For one of my undergraduate development classes at USC, I also did design work on a non-digital student game project, a board-game adaptation of the popular hit film, 300. Working as part of a three-man team, I helped devise the mechanics of this turn-based, cooperative strategy game. In this game, from 3 to 5 players can take on the role of one of five Spartans and fight against waves of Persian soldiers. Players must work as a team in order to survive the relentless hordes of foot soldiers and cavalry, and ruthless immortals that are sent to annihilate them.
Each player moves their character across the map in order to engage the enemy. The object is for the player to prevent enemy forces from reaching the opposite edge of the map, for it too many enemies get past the player, they lose. Players will also need to protect each other and cooperate or else they will quickly become surrounded and die. After each player moves, the enemy forces are moved. Enemies move according to a specific set of rules regarding movement, direction, and attack, allowing the enemy force to function as an artificial intelligence.
The combat system is based on a 10-sided die, and each player and enemy has values for attack, defense, and hit points, based on their location on the board relative each other. Each enemy kill grants the player “glory points” which can be used to activate each Spartan’s unique special ability which must be used strategically to give the player an edge in battle. The game includes two full levels as well as a special boss battle.