The Dead Cometh
My Capstone Project from Full Sail University
During this project I mostly worked as Game and Systems designer, as well has helping with gathering Playtest data, implementing Gameplay Prototypes, and working and Communicating with an art team.
Prototyping Phase
My work as a Game and Systems Designer began with making a working Character Controller + Camera, a System to control the logic of each level, and a Prototype of a trap.
Early Stages
We decided we wanted our project to be a Third Person Tower Defense game. I was in charge of building a working Character Controller, a Level Manager that controlled win conditions and wave management, as well as a working Trap for the player to use.
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Making Progress
After getting a lot of feedback on our first Prototype, we decided to push for a vision much like Orcs Must Die. I moved on to work mostly on the Level Manager for better functionality such as Level Difficulty Progression and Player Rewards to really achieve that Orcs Must Die style of Tower Defense
Tutorials
I worked on the Systems behind the tutorials in our game. We decided that we wanted to teach the player the game's Mechanics in a way that matched regular gameplay as closely as possible to make the learning experience easier.
Polish Phase
After gathering a great amount of Feedback from Playtests, it was time we polished the prototype into a complete Gameplay Loop with several Levels.
Better Systems
The Level Manager was something I kept working on during the entirety of the project. I worked on it to make level gameplay very customizable, allowing for options such as varied enemy spawn rates and amounts.
Better Tutorial Setups
I constantly updated the Tutorial with new Logic to take into account as many main mechanics as possible, while keeping these setups as close to normal gameplay as possible.
Even More Tutorials
We eventually made a couple of new Design decisions that would lead to more complicated Mechanics. These also required a way to be Introduced, so I decided to keep the same approach I took for the first tutorial to introduce these complicated Mechanics.
Art Implementation
Nearing the end of the project, we were assigned an art team to work with. We had to keep in touch and Communicate as clearly as possible, since the art team consisted of people who worked remotely. I Implemented and Tested most of the art assets in the Unity Engine.
