PRE-PRODUCTION
RESEARCH
I researched Events, Level Affordance, and video game Landmarks to create my initial sketches. As well as gather reference material.
The Office acts as the tutorial level where the player is first introduced to our game mechanics and events system.
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The Frankfurter Experiments is the last level of Unemployed and being so meant I needed to make sure this is where the player felt the most challenged, whether it be through parkour, or problem-solving.
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STAYING ON TRACK
During the pre-prod phase, we created an Asana board, where we wrote down each task that needed to be done in order to realize the goals we set for ourselves. This also helped me keep track of my progress and made it easier to cut content when needed.
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THE OFFICE
Quick Overview
This level serves as a tutorial level.
Upon starting the player will be greeted by a Secretary. She thinks you're the new intern and informs you that there are 3 people in need of your help in the office.
BLOCKOUT
LEVEL FLOCHART
The TP event
The player needs to find toilet paper
Either you give the TP to help the manager or give him sandpaper to annoy him.
The Chili Event
The Slides Event
The player needs to find the "presentation slides" that were left in the breakroom or you can go to the printer and print funny images to ruin his presentation.
A man located at the staircase needs your help to bring his huge chili pot to the breakroom the catch is you need to balance it while walking.
You either bring it to the break room without spilling on the floor by crashing into somebody else or you spill it and ruin everyone's lunch.
Pawned
What is Pawned ?
Pawned is a Third-Person, Wave Based Beat'em all. Where players gather money by beating up customers and can spend said money on new weapons.
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Genre: Wave Clearer, Beat'em all.
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Team Size: 3
Timeframe: 3 weeks
Role(s) & Responsibility
Game Design
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​Core Loop
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Pooling System
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AI
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Weapon Systems
Core Pillars of the Game's Design
1. Simple Gameplay
2. Evolving Map
3. Respecting the Theme
4. The Humor
Core Loop & Progression
Core Loop
A typical playthrough goes as follows: Start round, eliminate as many customers as possible, gather any money left on the ground, and spend your money however you see fit.
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Progression
We had to make sure players felt progressively stronger. So we classified our weapons in tiers. From best to worst, Exotic, Heavy, Light, Common.
Pooling Sytem
Since instantiating and destroying actors is heavy on memory. I created a pooling system to recycle our AI.
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AI
I wanted to give the player a bit more randomness and difficulty as they progress in the game. I felt that simply adding more and more AI was boring. To fix that I designed 3 AI's that act differently.
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Instead of having them randomly roam through the shop I created a waypoints system where you place as many waypoints you want where you want and the AI will randomly chose which one it goes to. This way we promote player engagement and give our AI more purpose.
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