Type: Team Project, 14 members
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Development: August '23 - May '24
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Description: "Turmoil" is a 3D isometric top-down action roguelike game. Inspired by a dieselpunk aesthetic, navigate a winding factory space filled with environmental hazards and hostile robot workers with the goal of survival. Rise from the ashes! Show the boss that a worker is more than their mechanical parts.
Responsibilities: Design and implement multiple rooms from white-boxing, to set dressing, and lighting; as well as reviewing and refining the work of other designers.
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Tools Used: UE5, Blueprints, Cube Grid
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Steam Link: Go To Page
Turmoil
Pre-Production
During pre-production it was decided we'd be making a rogue-lite centered around the theme "Rise From the Ashes". With our main character being an outdated and discarded half-human half-robot hybrid trying to prove his boss wrong. These were some of the very early sketches I made for our first fire themed floor. These designs began very simply so they could easily be reused and rethemed for our other steam and oil themed floors.
Production
The next step in our design process was to begin blocking out rooms to begin testing their size and the time it took to play through them. They were created using Unreal Engine's modeling tools, more specifically the cube grid. The levels underwent multiple size changes over the first months with our final levels being the smallest in an effort to create intense combat in tight areas. Early block-outs also facilitated in the testing of our procedural generation tool.
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Once our room sizes were decided and our assets and mechanics started to materialize we were able to begin populating our rooms.
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It was fun to be able to create bespoke rooms that really matched our floor aesthetics of oil, fire, and steam. On the other side of that was the challenge of taking more generic rooms that could be used across multiple floors and converting the room population to fit the theming while still being interesting and allowing the player to use their acquired abilities in a meaningful way.
Gameplay & Gallery
Post Mortem
This was the first time I'd worked on a game with a large team with the intention of having it actually ship and not just be for a grade. I was lucky enough to be chosen as the lead level designer, but I unfortunately feel I wasn't able to live up to the task and responsibilities as well as I would've liked. That being said, the experience still taught me an incredible amount and I was lucky to be accompanied by such a hardworking team.
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Communication: First and foremost clear and constant communication is one of the most important things. If I would've done a better job constantly communicating deadlines and expectations with fellow designers it would've saved us a lot of headaches in the long run.
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Time Management: Balancing such a large project along with a job was tough, but it taught me how imperative good time management is in order to complete tasks in a satisfactory and timely manner. It also taught me that sometimes you can only do so much and have to be ready to work outside of expected hours.
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Documentation: Using Unreal's cube grid for the first time came with some learning curves, not just for myself but for all of our designers so creating documentation to aid everyone in navigating that was crucial and taught me how great documentation can be for disseminating information and making sure everyone is on the same page.
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