In Trail Blazer, the player is a living oil blob that leaves a trail of oil wherever he walks as he navigates a hazard-filled maze to find the exit. Fire constantly chases the player along this trail, igniting the oil and other flammable objects throughout the levels. The fire is both a danger to the player as well as a tool that can be used to burn away obstacles.
I was a game designer and level designer on this game.
My Work On This Game:
Collaborated with design team to design game
Managed design team and led design meetings
Wrote documentation specifying game design
Worked with design team to establish guidelines for level design
Designed and built levels in original 2d level editor
Designed level with fire hazards always spreading near and in front of players to trap them, creating great tension and giving the flame the persisting presence of a living entity
Designed level to introduce player to feature of objects burning at different speeds, allowing players opportunity to observe the feature a few times before making navigational decisions based on this knowledge
Facilitated development team communication
Cooperated with programming, art, and audio teams to implement features
I led the design team for Trail Blazer, coordinating its efforts in game design and level design. The other designers and I worked together to write documents clearly defining how game features were to be implemented, elaborating on the concepts proposed by the creative lead. I established guidelines for level design and cooperated with other designers to refine levels, as well as doing level design myself.
