Throughout this project, I've worked together with the team as a Lead Designer and 3Cs Designer. I've provided the team with proper communication through documentation and project management, blockouts and mission designs, 3Cs iteration and polish, and also keeping alignment within a large team.
| Role: Lead Designer; 3C's Designer
| September 2021 - July 2022
| Genre: Singleplayer, Third-Person Stealth-Adventure
| Platform: PC
| Engine: Unreal Engine 4
| Team Size: 25+
STEAM STATS
Last updated: June 2022
3220 Wishlists
875.643+ Impressions
3C's: Camera, Character and Controls
Research Phase
My approach to creating the 3C’s was very rational: Research, prototype, playtest and iterate. Starting off with research, I did competitor analysis and compared player persona preferences with those of our existing competitors. Based on the conclusions, I went in engine to make prototypes.
Iteration Phase
Upon gathering internal feedback, I iterated upon the existing prototypes to optimize my code and adjust the camera behaviour.
During the production phase, I focused on QA for our 3C’s. Playtesting results resulted in more iteration and optimization, finally leading to our current end-product.
First version of camera behaviour for Child of Lothian prior to feedback and iteration.
Iterated version of camera behaviour for Child of Lothian after feedback received.
First version of camera behaviour for Child of Lothian prior to feedback and iteration.
The final result of 8 weeks of pre-production.
Quest and Technical Level Design
Concepting Phase
For our first proof-of-concept demo, I worked on creating prototypes for our Quest System which worked together with a Day and Night Cycle created by one of our programmers. Additionally, I also designed the quest based on our narrative written by our Writer. I provided the level designers with the implementation of the systems within the level as well as performing QA.
Quest Breakdown for Tech LD implementation.
A nodemap created by me to communicate to the Level Design department on the required areas for the planned quest.
Quest Breakdown for Tech LD implementation.
Lead Design Responsibilities
Sprint Planning and Asset Lists
Together with the other variation leads and our producer, we had meetings where we would determine sprint goals, deadlines and deliverables for our own variations. These tasks were defined prior to these meetings through asset lists I kept up to date regularly.
An example of an asset list created during pre-production phase.
An example of an asset list created during pre-production phase.
An example of our sprint planning during production phase.
An example of our sprint planning during production phase.
Marketing and Community Management
In multiple instances, I assisted in community events such as the Steam Next Fest. Our producer and I would stream our Demo on Steam in a form of Q&A session.
Decision-Making
Making decisions in a larger team can be tricky, especially working from a Lead position. Over the course of this project, I learned to improve my preparations prior to these decision-making meetings for more effective and aligned results.
During the concepting phase, I worked with meeting preparation documents and Decision Matrices. However, Decision Matrices proved to be time-consuming. This is why I decided to switch to Miro whiteboards and meeting notes. Here, we could all chip in with a more clearer overview of our topics.
Click the images for more details.
An example of the Decision Matrix can be found above this text.
On the right, you can see the use of Miro for collaboration on notes and meeting results.
One-Pager Documentation
After these decision-making sessions, it was important for me to create meeting conclusions that would be sent out to all other variations. For this, I created one-pager documents with visuals to convey our conclusions effectively to anyone in- and outside our team.
An overview of the core design of Child of Lothian. Mainly used during pitches to give the audience a clear and short overview of our game concept.
A game pillars one-pager for Child of Lothian.
An overview of the fail state of Child of Lothian during pre-production phase.
An overview of the core design of Child of Lothian. Mainly used during pitches to give the audience a clear and short overview of our game concept.
