Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Development Time: Approx. 16 weeks
Primae Noctis is our final Team Project at the Guildhall, a single player Unreal Tournament 3 conversion that takes place in a 14th century scottish castle. I designed the final level and boss fight, and supervised visuals for all levels. I also designed the seamless castle approach instead of separate levels, and researched advanced tech features such as cloth physics and advanced material building.
Tasks:
- Assistant Lead LD, supervise visuals and design of all levels
- Prototype majority of scripting archetypes
- Interface with Art and programming teams to meet all departments' needs
- Implement and supervise sound
- Design, build, and script final level and boss encounter; assist in building 'vertical slice' dungeon level (structure and aesthetics - scripting handled by Daniel Underwood)
- Work with producer and game designer to manage scheduling/cut levels/streamline tasks
I developed a novel use for the Emotiv EPOC EEG headset in gameplay, driving dialog according to amalgamated readings of a player's emotional state and facial expressions. To clarify, gameplay dialog is driven by subconscious reactions rather than conscious button presses and decisions. The project is nearing the testing stage.
I designed and wrote the branching dialog tree, modeled and helped implement motion capture for our animations, built the environment to mirror one of the entrances to a Forward Operating Base I was stationed at during combat overseas, and wrote the script to control the NPC's animations according to the headset's readings.
Run, a multiplayer foot race 'chase-escape' game, was my second team game project at the Guildhall. Run was built over two months in Unreal Engine 3 with a 9-person team, using original assets. Our goal with the game was to tweak combat racers like Mario Kart to be more two men running from a bear than a race, changing the motivation for sabotaging other players. I worked as a level designer in charge of a two-LD team, later the de facto Lead LD because of level cuts and technical skills I was able to bring the team.