Fall Development 2024:
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In the Fall Semester of 2024, the team started with 7 members on its team. During this time, I was in charge of Level Design, Tutorial Design, and Character Balance. In this stage of development, I needed to work closely with my team to ensure the game's development would continue into the spring semester of 2025. I worked to ensure the character's dash felt impactful but didn't prevent enemies from being unable to attack the player.
Layout of Level 1 Sprint 3
Layout of Level 1 Sprint 7
The first level was designed by researching the architectural and game layout philosophies of real-life casinos. The sprint 3 version showcases how we want the levels to be sectioned to allow for more exploration and diverse environments.
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In the sprint 5 version, we expanded the arena size while keeping the different sectioned areas more easily accessible to the player.
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The bottom left, middle right, and top middle all emulate the slot sections of casinos. The top left and far right sections are blackjack and poker table sections with bars.
Layout of Level 1 Sprint 14
I needed to reformat all of the game's documentation to allow for the onboarding of new designers. In particular, I created visual design guides to teach our new Level Designer the design philosophy for the game's levels and how to format the documentation for effective communication.
Sample of Improvement to documentation for the level Design Documentation for the Tutorial
For the Tutorial I designed it to teach the player through natural experience all the controls. This worked well for systems such as movement and shooting.
Team Members: Ashley Tucker (Programmer), Ilan Fiarman (Level Designer, Primary Testing Liason), Logan Allen (Character Artist and Animator), Karlo Pineda (Environment Artist) Preston Suarez (Producer), Tyler Mann (Sound Designer and Narrative Designer) Willow O'hara (Product Owner and Technical Designer).
Spring Development 2025:
Floor Boss Attack Demonstration
​​​In the Spring, our team's size grew by almost double, and I took the role of Lead Designer and Character Balance Designer.
As Lead Designer, I used what I learned as a Project Management Intern to work with my design team to tackle issues and needs that would fit our game's vision. This was a difficult adjustment from working independently in the game and documentation to a role like this, but thanks to peer and instructor feedback, I felt prepared and quickly adapted.
New Team Members: Celica Lisk(AI Programmer) Charles Conlan (Level Designer), Henry Bennet (General Programmer), Josh Zavadil (Sound Designer and Song Composer), Sam Kliment (Prop Artist) Seven Coleman (UI Designer)