My contributions to WayOut!
I worked on WayOut as the Producer, Game/UX Designer and Level Designer while in my first year in DigiPen.
My teammates and I wanted to create an experience highlighting combat, more particularly a Multiplayer boss combat experience. In order to achieve this, I had to:
Work closely with my team, directing workflow between artists and designers to hit milestones within the development cycle
With other designers, create the core pillars of what constitutes a boss battler style game
Design characters to help give a diverse experience to the player base
Design and Implement a boss and level that provided a different experience from the other bosses
Hosting multiple playtesting sessions to create the best user experience possible during the development of Way Out
Roles and Contributions
Level Design / UX Design
Reinforcing critical knowledge
From the start of any level, the player needs to perform basic movement and mechanic checks in order to move on to the next stage.
The levels are structured in such a way that they provided players with an area to test their controls before engaging the boss itself, providing an easier time for players to jump right into our desired player experience, the boss battles.
In this example, players learn that in this level, pressure plates require 2 players.
Level Design / UX Design
Setting players expectations
It is also crucial that we show our players where is the boundary between the outside and inside the boss arena.
This is because when the player crosses a certain point in the map, we want players to be in the mindset that they are going to fight a boss rather than surprising them out of the blue.
This is done through a multitude of 1-way doors or platforms, giving the player the idea that there is no backing out once they cross that point.
For example, a 1-way door that the player can visibly see there's no way back once they cross the door.
Level Design / Boss Design
New boss, old knowledge
When I was designing this boss, I wanted the battle to provide a different experience from the previous boss without having to learn new patterns.
With the 1st boss being slow and grounded, I started with the idea of a flying boss, which eventually evolved to a boss that can move in all directions but has a delay before executing any attack. This created opportunities for players to identify when the attack is coming and dodging, despite it being a faster-moving boss, similar to the 1st boss fight.
Delay between boss strikes and movement to give players a chance of dodging.
Level Design / Boss Design
Battle Arena
I wanted this area to be different from that of the 1st boss, instead of a wide side to side arena, the area is set as a small vertical arena with turrets that the player can deactivate by destroying a crystal, as well as having healing points to recover lost health.
This gave players a choice of 3 different actions, to heal, disable the turrets or attack the boss.
The intention is to cause players to feel that the fight is at a very high pace, without having a boss that moves and attacks fast.
A small arena where both players can track where the boss is and where the projectiles are coming from.