Thing and Fist
This project was my Senior Year Capstone project at Champlain College. At its core it is a CO-OP beat-em up set in a magical prohibition, with a drab setting being contrasted by the magical characters. While The final gameplay loop was not up to quality, I believe the knowledge and workflow on the level design side has been one of the most beneficial to date.
My Role and Experience
Dev Reel
I was Thing and Fist's sole-level designer during the first semester of my senior year, along with a Level Designer and encounter designer in the second semester.
The broad experience I gained was: Working with minimal available assets, coordinating with other teammates to build a larger-scale cohesive experience (Working with multiple artists and programmers. I gained experience in critique, design, as well as onboarding, as I was the one who had to share the design guidelines with the new-level designer who was brought on to make sure the styles of the map were cohesive.
When planning out the level, I had to pay a lot of attention to the flow of the level within the guidelines given to me by our Creative Director. I was to make a city split into multiple parts: Including a "downtown", a "business district", and a park. Throughout I was also instructed to make alleys and more "twisty-turny" areas to make the players feel like they are bobbing and weaving about the city.
While working on primarily Level-1, but also slight amounts on Level-2 I got extremely proficient in rapid iteration, applying test data to key areas, and creating environments that complimented level flow but also complimented the narrative of the game.
As the game's QA Liasion to Champlain's "Game Testing Lab" I was constantly going through data through test forms to analyze and share with my team in order to rapidly iterate in our single-week sprints.
I would say for a first large scale project, while not up to the standards I wished going into the year, I came out with extensive knowledge that I know my peers going into junior roles may not have, and for that reason, I would call this project a success as a level designer
