Demonside

• Project Management

  • Collaborated with Santa Monica Studios on a bi-weekly basis to provide them with regular updates on the game's development status.

    • Scheduled weekly team meetings to facilitate discussions regarding upcoming deadlines, present status updates, and conduct group playtests.

  • Organized project documentation with a shared Google Drive containing folders for each discipline.

    • Created design documentation including a design macro chart to detail major design aspects.

  • Monitored the team's weekly progress by utilizing SCRUM Burndown Charts.

    • Implemented a daily SCRUM routine to report individual progress on a daily basis, but recognized that it proved to be excessive and ineffective.

  • Managed the development process of the programming, design, art, and audio teams.

  • Implemented effective communication channels on Discord to facilitate timely information exchange among team members to ensure that everyone stayed well-connected and informed throughout the project.

• Collaborative Problem-Solving

  • Upon encountering challenges related to team motivation, sought guidance from mentors and professors, and implemented individual meetings with teammates. This proactive approach not only addressed issues surrounding motivation but also helped resolve various internal concerns.

  • Frequently sought input from teammates regarding significant design decisions.

    • Made the decision to remove a major mechanic that we wouldn't be able to deliver on in time despite it not being a popular choice among the team. As a result, our game achieved a higher level of polish and refinement.

• Interpersonal Conflict Handling

  • Encountered a conflict with one of the level designers regarding the prioritization of tasks. Despite the team's previous agreement during a meeting to focus on creating levels that showcase all mechanics before the class playtest instead of working on a tutorial, this teammate independently proceeded to work on tutorial levels without prior notification or discussion.

    • Addressed the situation with professionalism and clearly communicated the short-term development goals and the rationale behind prioritizing certain aspects for the playtest. The conflict was promptly resolved in a respectful manner.

• Team Support

  • Consistently conducted individual check-ins with every team member and offered support.

    • Aided a team member who was afraid to speak their mind during team discussion.

    • Acknowledged a team member who was struggling mentally and made arrangements to team  responsibilities in order to provide as much support as they needed.

  • Accommodated team members that preferred an alternative form of communication.

  • Promoted a feedback culture within the team, encouraging them to provide input on my own performance in order to better address their collective and individual needs.

  • Reached out to and welcomed 4 other talented students to join the project and assist development.

• Project Shipping

  • Oversaw development of production assets including the itch.io page, game trailer and poster. 

  • Presented the project at MSU's Game Development Showcase.

UI

• Menu UI

  • Wireframed and prototyped all menu UI in Adobe XD:

    • Main Menu, Options, Credits, Pause, and View Controls.

  • Collaborated with my fellow UI designer to seamlessly integrate their artwork into the game's user interface.

  • Included controller and keyboard input graphics to show the game controls on the pause menu.

  • Designed a transition for an opening cutscene that plays when a new game is selected. 

• Gameplay UI

  • Crafted in-game tutorials specifically tailored to early gameplay segments, aiming to provide concise and straightforward instructions to players about the game's mechanics. 

  • Developed a pop-up system that briefly displays a notification when a player collects a collectible, providing visual feedback before fading away. 

    • This pop-up notification was also incorporated into the pause menu, ensuring that players could easily track their progress at any time.

  • Designed an icon that dynamically appears when a player is within range of a grapple point, signaling the opportunity to initiate a grapple.

    • Iterated on the appearance of the grapple points to subtly indicate their range with a circle.

UX

• Gameplay UX

  • Incorporated suggestions and insights received from players and Sony mentors about the game's control scheme to enhance the gameplay experience.

  • Implemented a visual effect in the form of a blue fog that dynamically appears along specific edges of the screen, serving as an indicator of progression within the game. 

  • Reduced respawn times to align with the fast-paced nature of the game, allowing players to quickly retry a room after failing.

• Quality of Life

  • Designed a dynamic mechanic that adapts the displayed control icons on tutorial windows based on the type of controller being used by the player.

  • Implemented a feature that allows the player to attach to a grapple point even if they briefly move out of the valid range.

    • Programmed a "coyote time" mechanic that grants players a brief period to perform a jump even after leaving a platform.

• Accessibility

  • Video Settings:

    • Incorporated a custom aspect ratio feature that enables the game to adapt and be playable across various monitor sizes, ensuring optimal visual presentation and gameplay experience regardless of the screen dimensions.

    • Implemented a toggle for screen shake effects.

  • Audio Settings:

    • Included individual volume settings for master, music, sounds, and voiceover.

  • Controls:

    • Designed a toggle feature to allow the player to change the button inputs for the grappling mechanic according to their preferences.

  • Included a "Reset to Default" button that allows players to easily revert all values back to their original defaults.

  • All changes made in the options menu are saved between play sessions. 

• Level Design Management

  • Guided the design of 3 worlds for a 2D platformer game with 4 other developers.

    • Used Unity Tilemaps to craft the environment of the game world.

  • Carefully tuned difficulty and pacing of the game throughout development.

  • Developed and maintained detailed level design documents that outline the objectives, mechanics, layout, pacing, and progression of each level.

  • Developed a template world encompassing all essential game management objects for other designers to utilize during development.

  • Provided constructive feedback and guidance to the level designers on the team and encouraged a collaborative and creative environment.

• Organization

  • Achieved workload balance among four other level designers and developed a level design skeleton to provide a comprehensive outline of the entire game's length.

• Balancing and Iteration

  • Established specific goals for fellow designers to accomplish prior to upcoming playtests, ensuring comprehensive feedback could be obtained on multiple aspects of the game.

  • Organized frequent playtest sessions with classmates and Sony mentors to gather feedback specifically focused on the game's difficulty. This iterative process helped in fine-tuning and refining the game's challenge.

  • Identified design issues, resolved conflicts, and made critical decisions to ensure the overall quality of level design.

• Cross-Discipline Collaboration

  • Created a prototype of a compact demo-world that provided dedicated space for testing and validating all the game's mechanics, serving as a valuable tool to support the programming pipeline and ensure seamless integration of gameplay elements.

  • Met with the programming team on a few occasions to explore and discuss the implementation of new designer tools aimed at expediting the development process for creating new levels.

  • Regularly conducted meetings with the art team to actively explore fresh ideas for environment tiles, aiming to enhance the visual appeal of the game.

  • Maintained regular communication with the narrative designer to ensure that the pacing of the game felt optimal and aligned with the intended experience.