Blackout
https://vojmir.itch.io/blackout
This project is a horde survival shooter that was made in the span of four months. During this project, I collaborated with fellow designers to implement features that would lead to the gameplay and feeling we outlined in our game design document.
My Contributions:
Wave Spawning System
Weapons Systems
Management of Game Design Document
Documentation of Player Feedback
Game Balance and Player Scaling
Collaborated with Fellow Designers to Develop a Cohesive Vision of all Game Mechanics.
Swampy Land- Level Section
Creation of three new enemy types: (Exploader, Puddler, and Jumper)
What Went Right
While working on the project I was able to hone my skills with scripting and was able to gain a deep understanding of how to create weapons systems and horde spawning systems.
By creating a solid template I was able to assist our team in quickly completing our game design document and starting work on the game as fast as possible. This template also allowed non team members to quickly look through and find any information they may need.
I was able to create a level that players enjoyed. Our play testers would consistently return to the Swampy Land section. Players greatly enjoyed the spectacle of a Swamp themed amusement park, and found the circular level design to fit the gameplay well.
What Went Wrong
During month two of development I overscoped my level and this lead to it being a loose shell of the level it is now. I was able to fix this by scalling down some of the areas I had planned (a roller coast and haunted house) and focusing on populating the level as much as possible with general items and spectical.
The shotgun took a lot of time from me as I wanted to challenge myself to create 2 very different guns. The base gun parent that I originally tried to build off of did not work well for the shotgun and this lead to me wasting more time trying to get it to work than I should have used. This is due to the fact that shotguns reload one bullet at a time and can shoot while being reloaded. In hindsight I could have used the base gun template for things such as assault rifles and pistoles and made a seperate base gun for shotguns and bolt action rifles. I feel had I done this I could have left the game with more than just two guns for players to use.
From the start I knew we were going to need an enemy respawn system for when enemies get too far away from the player. While I should have implemented this month one following the creation of the horde spawn system I chose to put it off and work on other aspects of the project. This lead to the game being incredibly difficult to test as we expanded the map to be larger. I would later add the respawn system but in hindsight I should have created it and tested it immediatly following the horde spawn system.
