Project Sirius is an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod I made with a team. It is a platformer in which the player has high-flying acrobatic abilities, but attacks that can only briefly disable enemies. The player's attacks can also supplement the platforming abilities, like the freeze blast that can turn enemies into temporary platforms, and the wind blast that can knock these enemies into more useful positions.
I was the lead designer, a level designer, and the producer for this game.
My Work On This Game:
Collaborated with team to design game
Managed development team
Wrote documentation specifying game design
Defined player and enemy abilities and properties to create engaging combat
Designed combat so that player can only temporarily nullify enemies, forcing the player to stay on the move and never feel safe
Designed combat so that player attacks cause enemies to be helpful in platforming challenges, letting the player feel clever in using the enemy
Designed player abilities to allow a high degree of acrobatic mobility to make movement fun and free
Designed and built level in Unreal level editor
Designed progression of platforming challenges to increasingly challenge the player's ability to discover combinations of acrobatic abilities
Designed platforming challenges with multiple solutions, giving players a feeling of freedom
Designed and placed enemies in level editor to threaten player and be used as platforming aids
Managed asset library
Cooperated with programming, art, and audio teams to implement features
This was my first experience leading a development team. I had worked with most of the members previously on a different project in which most of the people dropped out. The ones who stuck with that project are the people who formed the core of the Project Sirius team.
I had a lot of fun coming up with the jumping puzzles in this game. The later puzzles require complex combinations of the player's various acrobatic moves to solve.
For example, at one point, I place an obstacle that is tall enough that the player needs to wall jump to it from a perpendicular wall, wall jump off the obstacle, air dash into the obstacle to wall jump off it again, and then use the double jump to change direction to get over the obstacle. This obstacle forces the player to learn what is possible through combinations. Through mastering these combinations, the player is led to feel powerful and able to overcome seemingly impassable obstacles.
I also place alternate routes and shortcuts to be discovered by players who master the acrobatic combinations. This allows skillful players to feel clever in bypassing parts of the level.
We are currently developing an updated version of Project Sirius using the Unreal Development Kit.
