ROLES
Game Design / Level Design / Sound Design Lead / Casting / UI/UX Lead / Graphic Design Lead / Marketing Lead
DESCRIPTION
Chronoclasm was the final project of my college career, where I worked full time on a small team of 4 to create a game of our choosing. We only had a year to do so, and only 4 people, so a lot of us wore a lot of hats!
For my contributions, I singlehandedly helmed the UI Art, Graphic Design, and Sound Design departments, which required me to constantly user test to ensure the player was informed at all times. As we conducted countless playtests, I carefully studied and analyzed the results, fine-tuning the experience with each testing session.
I also had a hand in the level design and game design, working in collaboration with other team members to create, develop, and adjust mechanics based on testing results.
YEARS WORKED
2022 - 2023
GENRE
Action / First Person Shooter / Rogue-like
PLATFORM/VENUE
PC
LINK TO PLAY
Game Design
What I did
As one of the Game Designers, I participated in countless meetings to play through the game, discuss mechanics, discover problems, and eventually solve those problems with smart and easy to implement solutions.
Often I was in discussion with our programmer, Ben Schuster, asking him what solutions were possible and the scope of those solutions. Usually, the answer would be that our first solution would not be possible, so it was up to me and the team to figure out what solutions were in scope! You can see Bens website here!
My jobs as a game designer were:
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Create mechanics for a first-person rogue-like shooter.
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Participate in discussions exploring new additions to gameplay.
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Playtest builds to find new problems and think of potential solutions.
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Explore solutions and fit them to work within scope.
Here is a whole playthrough of one run of the game! Here, you can see the mechanics and play pattern of the game on full display. You'll also see the core mechanics in action and the many methods we employed to ensure players stay well-informed throughout the experience. Frequently, we recorded gameplay sessions like this, studying them to understand how our game functioned and making adjustments as needed.
UI/UX and Graphic Design
What I did
As the lead UI/UX specialist for this game, I was responsible for the creation and conceptualization of every single asset that went into the UI, and for ensuring the user experience is a pleasant one. I watched countless playtest sessions and conducted many surveys to figure out how our users were engaging with the game, and where they might be struggling. After that, I adjusted the experience as necessary so that those problems were a thing of the past!
I was also responsible for creating all of our visual assets for marketing, and made them to print too! These materials were used to promote our game at 2023s FUSE celebration for Bradley University!
My jobs as the lead UI/UX specialist and lead graphic designer were:
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Create visually unique and engaging assets for the games various menus and screens.
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Implement said assets into the game using Unity.
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Conduct user research to ensure players never feel confused.
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Elaborate on already existing assets to solve potential communication issues.
You can see my UI concepts and marketing materials below!
Check out our booth at FUSE 2023! Here we showed off our game in one of its best states before we hit the final stretch! Players of all ages and demographics came by and tried the game out, playing it and giving their honest thoughts. I was responsible for creating the banner you see here, as well as watching our players closely. I took notes on how they played, and observed how they interpreted the various ways I communicated information.
Level Design
What I did
As one of the level designers of the game, I had a very important job. The levels of the game are where players would, well, play the game. This meant they had to be fun to move around in, and easy to navigate. But given that this was a first person shooter as well, the levels also had to have features such as hiding spots, multiple levels and more!
Once the rooms were sculpted out by our 3D artist, my job was to make them pretty! I decorated these rooms with assets
My roles as a level designer were:
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Create blueprints for potential future levels.
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Iterate on those blueprints to fit our scope.
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Decorate levels with assets presented by our 3D artist to fill levels with set pieces.
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Use props to tell a story using the environment.
You can see some of my level blueprints below, as well as fully decorated levels!
Here is a fully rendered model of a level done by our talented 3D artist, Austim Dahmm! You can see his work here, but my job was to help giving him layouts so he could work his magic! I also decorated this room once he sculpted out the shape!
Sound Design and casting
What I did
What is a game without sound? As the lead sound designer in the game, my job was to create a unique set of sound effects and background noises to immerse the player in our world. Each sound had to sound satisfying, but also give an idea as to the action that just happened.
Not only that, but I also worked in tandem with Somasundari Hannon, our talented lead writer, to help cast our characters! I sat in for auditions and gave my thoughts on who I thought would make the best voice for each character. You can see Somasundaris work here!
My roles as the lead sound designer were:
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Develop unique sound effects for every action in the game, from walking to shooting.
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Edit voice clips to sound like they happen in world.
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Adjust volume levels in Unity to ensure the player gets the important sounds first.
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Create ambient sound to bring the world to life.