Gameplay Video
Project Type: Undergrad Capstone Game
Technobabble is a third-person action rhythm platforming game featuring a bright solarpunk aesthetic, fast-paced beat-em-up combat, and free-flowing movement through a vast futuristic utopia. You play as Juno, a tough skater chick who loves music and freedom, while she skates through the city smashing remix police robots and liberating three different districts. My personal goal while working on this large interdisciplinary team was to create cohesive and consistent designs which exemplified the predetermined genres while creating enjoyable and smooth gameplay. Additionally, I wanted to create a single level from start to finish that demonstrated my ability to create an environment with multiple unique paths leading to a single location, offering an increase to overall player agency that supported a high level of movement seamlessly.
Responsibilities:
- As Lead Designer, I was responsible for delegating tasks to each member regularly after reviewing previous tasks, maintained and updated the game’s design documentation, and critiqued work submitted by the design team
- Utilized my design knowledge to assist in altering the game’s core mechanics and gameplay to better fit a high movement experience that encourages exploration through increased player agency
- Conceptualized and constructed an overview map of the world showing how each area connected to one another to aid in narrative progression context
- Worked with the design team to create cohesive documents for each level and boss fight throughout development
- Collaborated with the Creative Director to create a cohesive world and narrative told through a mixture of environmental storytelling and narrative exposition
- Designed the layout of the map on paper and then transition to Illustrator for further iteration
- Constructed and iterated on the whitebox of the level using UE4 BSP brushes to develop a space that promoted interesting and fun uses of the various mechanics that support high levels of movement
- Populated the space using custom art to create a cohesive and consistent environment that met all aesthetic goals presented by the Creative Director while focusing on environmental storytelling and navigation
- Designed, whiteboxed, populated, and polished four themed sub-levels that were streamed to create a larger seamless experience
- Owned the 2nd level, Upbeat-High Rise, from concept through completion
- Utilized Blueprints to build a functional experience that showed the tech team how particular elements of the space should function and feel
Software Utilized:
- Unreal Engine 4
- Blueprints
- Tortoise VPN
- Excel
- Adobe Illustrator
Inspiration:
- Sonic Heroes: Bright color palette, cartoon art style, rail grinding, environmental traversal
- Spiderman (Ps4): Free-flowing movement, increased player agency, teatherable objects
- Devil May Cry: Beat-em-up style combat with swarms of enemies varying in type
Preproduction and Design Principles
Layout Design:
The game’s layout was developed to be an entirely outdoor linear experience with multiple paths leading to the same objective. My level was the second level, and the main goal was to ensure that the player utilized a plethora of different movement mechanics in conjunction with a diverse environment that offered multiple paths to explore. The map itself consists of 3 unique areas and a boss fight at the end. These areas remained consistent with the aesthetic while offering unique, memorable environments that directly affected how the player should navigate through the space. When compared to other maps on my portfolio it really shows an incredible amount of growth within a short period of time.
Production
Building the Whitebox In Engine:
The next step was to begin working on the whitebox. First, I started with the general structure of each area, just empty boxes for the player to move through combined with an early stage terrain created in UE4 for basic navigation and scale. After adding in the basic architecture, I began to set up any environmental mechanics such as kill boxes, health pickups, teatherable objects, and grindable rails.
Once all the environmental mechanics were in and functioning in their intended capacity, I began gradually increasing the number of environmental proxies, keeping in mind conveyance techniques such as framing, leading lines, and colored lighting.
One of the important aspects of this whitebox for me was making sure the player had as much agency as possible. There are two instances that stand out strongly as points where the player had a multitude of options. The first of these is the second area where Juno grinds rails to enter the most open part of the city. This area includes 6 unique paths which can be switched between at the player’s leisure. Each path has unique mechanical uses and enemy encounters to increase the replayability and increase the unique experience each time the area is played through.
The other example is the third area which offered the player a vast variety of vertical movement through a more narrow, canyon-like space which focused the player’s movement in cycles of aerial tethering between enemies and grinding through hordes of robots to reach the radio tower.
Populating with Art Assets:
After the whitebox was completed, it was time to move on to population.
I began by set dressing the architectural parts of the level first (walls, floors, trees, hedges, and buildings) to ensure the look was cohesive and appealing. Much like the whitebox process, I worked my way inward and toward more detailed set dressing as I progressed through the process. As more unique art was finished I performed more frequent passes of the space to ensure that our artist’s pieces were being shown off and utilized to their full extent while also ensuring the integrity of the space was maintained.
One of my personal goals for this project was to use a plethora of different level design techniques to create a more player-facing experience. This was done through the combat design encounters, visual notable landmarks to support player orientation, player exploration encouragement, and supporting player choice through presented and clear options.
Towards the later side of development for level 2 I began a base pass for all lighting and fog through the space. This pass determined where all essential lights would be to help guide the player through the bright and colorful environment. During this phase, I also worked with the skybox to create a stylized evening lighting style which supported the idea that each level would take place during different times of day ( L1 = afternoon, L2 = evening, L3 = night )
Lessons Learned
Lighting for Stylized Experiences:
Quality lighting is essential to any well designed environment. During this project I learned the value of understanding how different styles of games were lit. Typically I lean away from stylized environments but understanding how those styles influence the lighting within the level can really make or break it’s appearance. Given the chance, I would revisit the lighting of the housing district to mesh even more with a stylized experience though I am proud of what I accomplished within a short amount of time.
The Balance Between Player Agency and Linear Experiences:
When designing experiences with an increase to player agency there are an enormous number of variables to consider. Managing these variables can be a bit overwhelming at times but through playtesting, iteration and an increase in allotted time to repeat the process those variables can be managed. Additionally it was a unique challenge to design a space where at any moment the player could deviate from one path to start on another or run off of a path and get lost within the large space. I mitigated this through a combination of interweaving specific moments on a given path and through mandatory choke points where multiple paths ultimately lead to. Through having the different paths meet at particular points it was easier to ensure that important information was given to the player at these moments, as well as ensuring that the player was continuing along a linear path towards the end goal of the level.
Being a Leader and Working with Diverse Groups:
This was my first experience joining a team with a game in the vertical slice state. Joining a project in the middle of development had some learning curves but thankfully I was able to overcome these obstacles early on. Soon after joining the team I was promoted to Lead Designer where I worked alongside other leads and members of the design team. Initially it was difficult to navigate the social aspects of being a leader but as the project moved throughout development those difficulties subsided and I was able to refine my leadership style. Communication can be a tough facet of game design since each member of the team communicates differently. This project allowed me the time to polish my leadership skills and better communicate with my teammates.