DEVELOPMENT INFO
Genre: Isometric Arcade Shooter Engine: Unreal 3 (UDK) Team Size: 14 Development Time: 16 weeks |
RESPONSIBILITIES
Role: Technical Level Designer - Scripted gameplay-related sequences across most levels - Scripted & balanced combat encounters - Designed and programmed "Rockettes" combo shot in UScript - Debugged and programmed custom Kismet nodes in UScript - Designed Arena-mode "final" boss encounter - Prototyped concept levels - Contributed to weapon and enemy balance and design - Advocated design-friendly coding practices |
Game Description
Blastrobots is an isometric, robot-slaying, modern homage to old-school arcade games. Blastrobots features multiple weapons, unique enemies, and an innovative revive system. Blast your way through hordes of enemies by yourself or enter the fray with up to three other people in same-screen multiplayer action. Combine weapons to unleash devastating combo-shots, assist your friends when they go down in battle, and battle across a space station teeming with enemies.
In Blastrobots, players control junky, misguided robots as they create havoc in a clean, utopian space station. Rampage through a beautiful city, battle waves of enemies while zooming down a freeway, and survive an epic boss battle, while trying to achieve a high score!
In Blastrobots, players control junky, misguided robots as they create havoc in a clean, utopian space station. Rampage through a beautiful city, battle waves of enemies while zooming down a freeway, and survive an epic boss battle, while trying to achieve a high score!
My role
Because of my background in computer science, our level design lead chose to use me as a technical level designer. In many ways, I acted as the level design liaison to the programming team by expressing our needs in a way they could easily understand. This led to the creation of a weapon system that allowed the level designers to balance and tweak weapons with relative ease. In addition, my close work with the programmers responsible for creating custom Kismet nodes allowed me to modify those nodes when the level design needed changes, or when the level designers found bugs in those nodes.
When working with other level designers, I set up many of the gameplay-focused scripting sequences through most of the levels, such as the barriers that guide player progress and the control system for the "Highway" level platform.
While the team designed combo-shots in pre-production, I advocated for each weapon to have its own unique feel and function, and to not simply have six flavors of screen clearing. During production, the team was unsatisfied with the "Rockettes" combo shot, so I went into UnrealScript and created a new version of the combo shot that the team loved, and can be found in the final product.
When working with other level designers, I set up many of the gameplay-focused scripting sequences through most of the levels, such as the barriers that guide player progress and the control system for the "Highway" level platform.
While the team designed combo-shots in pre-production, I advocated for each weapon to have its own unique feel and function, and to not simply have six flavors of screen clearing. During production, the team was unsatisfied with the "Rockettes" combo shot, so I went into UnrealScript and created a new version of the combo shot that the team loved, and can be found in the final product.