I graduated with honours a few days ago and now it’s time to switch from a student to an actual game designer. We had a graduation award ceremony and my game design document, TimeSwitch, received an award for Best Game Design Document.
Some other highlights are, Unseen Island being nominated for Best Level and a cut scene concept of mine getting nominated for Best Machinima.
Here’s some of the projects worked on during my time in Vancouver Film School:
Games
Gravitos
Gravitos was our final project at VFS, a top down space shooter developed in a team of 3 over the course of 6 months using Unity3D. You control a “Gravitron”, a space ship that has its own orbital ring and use this ring to collect asteroids and satellites to then shoot them at your enemies or spin them around your orbit to bash foes apart. Gravitos also features three different abilities and a level up system.
My roles for Gravitos involved lead mechanic design, user interface design, audio system design, design documentation and scripting various features.
TimeSwitch
TimeSwitch is a side scrolling 2D puzzle-platform game targeted for flash where the player switches between the present and future to avoid obstacles and enemies. The present is an advanced factory world, while the future is in-ruin and overgrown. The player solves puzzles and avoids enemies in the world by using the time switching ability, machinery in the world and platforming around obstacles. The player has to find out why the future’s been destroyed and try to change it. Large actions the player does in the story will change the future world for better or for worse.
As a solo game design document project, my roles included game design, UI design and level deign.
Tideturner
Tideturner is a continuous side scrolling Flash game developed by a team of 4 students in 2 months, where the player has the power to control the tide.
You raise and lower the water level to help a poor soul maneuver on a Jet Ski gone haywire, or you could smash him into… things and see what happens.
My roles included front end design, world art assets and sound design.
Tideturner made some waves as it was featured in VFS’ PAX booth and later purchased by MaxGames.com.
Links (requires flash)
Levels
Unseen Island
Unseen Island is a single player level created in UDK and features enemy vehicle and soldier AI, two different puzzles and a boss battle. The player crashes their ship, is flung out and then has to get back to their ship that’s stuck at the top of the cliff.
On the roundabout way back, the player drives a vehicle while fighting other enemies, is tested on foot by their gun skills and puzzle solving wits in a temple with a boss battle awaiting at the end. The boss goes though three different phases and the fight contains changing environments, such as giant boulders levitating and smashing into each other as the boss gets harder.
Files
Lost Haven
Lost Haven is a small death match level created over 3 weeks in UDK featuring a rotating conveyor belt that players can stand on to shoot while moving or run on to get around the level quickly. I made the conveyor area open with lots of falling hazards to make it have a high reward but a costly risk to use.
My goal was to create a detailed level that looks close to Epic Games’ own levels. To reach this goal, I made the level small, only holding 5-8 players. I enjoyed working on the lighting and utilizing different post-processing volumes to create unique effects.
Files
Thanks for checking out this work, here’s some more images from the year:
