LING & THE CORRUPTED HOLLOW

ENGINE: Unreal Engine 5

ROLE: SYSTEMS DESIGNER / technical designer / audio designer

PROJECT goals / FOCUS

For this project, I created and balanced the movement systems and mechanics, as well as all the audio systems and implementation. In working deeply with Unreal Blueprints, I collaborated with programmers and engineers to refine my code and blueprints and get them to full function.

Below, I will show and describe in detail my contributions to this project.

AVAILABLE ON STEAM sOON

Development process

Creating & balancing the movement systems & mechanics

Balancing Movement Systems

  • For this project, I worked with a systems tools programmer to design and balance the main movement systems in this game:

    • These systems included: walking, running, jumping, double jumping, ground dashing, and air dashing

    • Ground and air dashing ended up getting cut to slow down player pace and align closer to the design goals of the project

    • For each milestone, the programmer and I would sit down with the team leads and reassess the movement systems, taking their notes to rebalance movement feel

Documentation on new mechanics

  • For the team to keep up with the design and balance changes made for movement systems:

    • I created a detailed document that would be frequently updated by either myself or the systems tools programmer to represent the latest movement system changes

    • This document also outlined design considerations for level designers on ideal situations for the current movement balance

  • Below are some images of the documentation I made for these game systems.

  • Movement Mechanics Analysis & Breakdown Docuement

    (Written by me)

  • Ghosties Abilities Mechanic Breakdown & Design Considerations

    (Written by me)

  • Measurements for Movement Abilities Table

    (Recorded and Written by me and Systems Tools Programmer Chanukya Venepally)

  • System Tools Variable Table for Designers

    (A table that outlines which variable affects what movement ability and how in engine, made for team leads and level designers)

    (Created and Updated by me and Systems Tools Programmer Chanukya Venepally)

audio design & implementation

Audio design

  • For this project, I designed all audio sound effects for the game:

    • This included utilizing sound bites from a free audio library provided by SMU Guildhall

    • I would bring these sound bites into an audio editing program to create sound effect wav files

    • Then, I would import these files into the game files for game implementation

  • Below are some images of the audio project files that were used to create the sound effect files.

Audio Implementation

  • For this project, I also implemented all audio into the game project, including all music and sound effects:

    • This included creating Metasound files for each audio file

    • In some cases, I needed to create Blueprints to trigger the audio to play at specific moments

    • I often collaborated with programmers to either fix or refine the functionality and organization of many different blueprints I created or worked on

  • Below are some images of the MetaSound files and Blueprints I used for audio implementation in this project.

  • Blueprint to make a sound effect play when player interacts with an item without overlapping sound effects

    (Created by me and revised by Team Lead Programmer Ayden Machejewski)

  • Blueprint created to slowly fade out background music once the player has left a trigger box

    (Created by me & Systems Tools Programmer Chanukya Venepally)

  • Blueprint created to control when background music fades in or out in a specified area

    (Created by me & Systems Tools Programmer Chanukya Venepally)

  • MetaSound File structure that plays sound on input until input is released

    (Created by me & Team Lead Programmer Ayden Machejewski)

  • MetaSound File Structure that randomizes the sound file that plays from an array of sound files

    (Created by me)

  • Audio Editing for Scan Sound Effect

    (Created by me)

  • Audio Editing for In-Game Animal Noises

    (Created by me)

pOSTMORTEM

What went well?

  • Communication with programmers went very well

  • Extensive experience working with Unreal Blueprints on the project; good learning experience for Unreal Blueprints

  • Maintained good communication with leadership

  • Good studio experience working with other designers and programmers

  • Released a good, high-polish product despite production setbacks

What went wrong?

  • Iterating with artists was difficult, with designers and artists often not aware of each other’s progress and needs

  • Lack of overall creative and design vision for the project led to many sudden design changes during production

  • Weak cohesion between art and systems design early on in production led to systems having to be overhauled late in production

even better if…

  • More frequent meetings with artists to catch up both the design teams and art teams on task progress would prevent art or design from redoing work late in production

  • Establish a stronger creative vision and design principles for the game project earlier on in pre-production, so the team has a more solid idea of how to move the game into full production

  • Prototype and test out game mechanics faster in the engine to find the fun in the game mechanics and systems, so designers can more quickly and confidently design levels that are focused around the game’s key mechanics and systems