Snowpainters
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Responsibilities
Responsible: Level Design
Consulted: System Balance
Commentary Video
High Concept
My responsibilities encompassed all aspects of Track 1: North Pole's gameplay. As the first of three race tracks, it introduced our motifs of track design: curves, splits, jumps, verticality, conveyance signals, and more. Our strike team of four designers documented and implemented the track. From Alpha onwards, I was solely responsible for bringing the gameplay aspects of the track to a shippable quality.
Our core mechanic gave our project a unique set of gameplay considerations. The placement of paint puddles needed balance alongside item drops and pickups that affected our core loop. We examined emergent strategies as we simulated races, and adjusted our level design to optimize color variation. The paint mechanic also affected other systems balance problems, such as the penguin classes. I conducted sessions to analyze and balance our unique gameplay, and provided suggestions to improve it.
Development Timeline
Weeks 1-2
Weeks 3-4
Weeks 4-5
Weeks 6-7
Weeks 8-9
Week 10
Proof of Concept: Technology
Proof of Concept: Gameplay
First Playable
Alpha Milestone
Beta Milestone
Release to Manufacture
Drew paper prototypes for all three levels.
Refined and iterated maps for design constraints.
Designed and implemented Track 1's first pass in Unreal.
Track 1 became playable for testing and iteration.
Worked toward Alpha version ahead of other tracks.
Put elements put in place - AI splines, minimap, etc.
Worked toward Beta version ahead of other tracks.
Refined track spline, items, paint puddles until confident.
Balanced systems for the entire game.
Made Track 1 airtight and bug free according to QA tests.
Made sure the track was of shippable quality.
QA tested the entire game.