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ROLES ON PROJECT
- LEVEL DESIGNER / GAME DESIGNER / CREATIVE DIRECTOR -
- CCC DESIGNER -
In Shuttle Rush, the player must continually run against the clock to survive since the character has an oxygen leak inside his space suit. He must refill his oxygen tank at oxygen stations scattered thru the levels. But these fills are not free. He must thus collect coins scattered thru the level to be able to pay for oxygen and thus, reach the end of the level. Each coin is worth 4 seconds of oxygen. But that is not all! Enemies and obstacles will slow his progress. The goal of the game is to find the right path to the end of a level, while meticulously gathering coins and using them at the nearest oxygen station, so as to survive long enough to reach the end door.
For this project, I was responsible mainly for the level design and managing the team so that the project would reach completion. I am very proud of what we were able to achieve, especially since we had a tight schedule and needed to finish the game for the Ouya launch date. We worked very hard to achieve this. I had to finish all my 42 levels in a very short time lapse of a couple of months. To help speed up the process, I drew a lot of sketches on paper which I then could put into simple blocking inside Unity to test them out. One of the most important things I did to help me implement my levels quickly inside the engine was to clearly define my Metrics beforehand. Without this, I probably would never have been able to finish this project in so short a time. During the conception, I made sure that each level had its own concept that made it stand out from the rest so as to ensure that they felt unique and fresh. I played and replayed each level tirelessly in order to ensure that each moment was interesting and well-paced. Each jump, each corridor length, each enemy position were calculated so as to give the best feeling to the player as possible. Furthermore, I made sure that each level could be completed using different paths in order to give an incentive to the competitive players to try and reach for the first place on the online leaderboard.
Shuttle Rush was also released on the Wii U. This was an enhanced version from the one previously released on the Ouya. For this version, we tried to use all the features of the Wii U in a meaningful way so as to enhance the gameplay. For this port, I improved my level design made previously on the Ouya by making it more accessible, less frustrating and more gratifying. I also helped in designing the UI and how to best implement the different unique features of the Wii U inside our game. For example, we implemented a map on the gamepad so as to help the player get his bearings inside the level, but we also made it so the player could put the map on his controller next to his television while he used another controller to play the game and thus have the map always there to help him navigate. I also was responsible of communications with Nintendo and of the debugging, by finding and reporting all bugs to my team of programmers so they resolve them and thus ensure that the game ran smoothly.
The latest version of Shuttle Rush was released on the 22nd of December 2016 on Google Play. For this version, I again made some small changes to my levels to adapt them to the constraints of mobile gaming. I also helped design two different methods of control to ensure that players could easily play this platformer on a mobile device using a touch screen. I’m very proud of the controls implemented in this game, since I was able to implement a control scheme that felt almost as effortless as if we were using a controller. I also was responsible once again for the debugging, by finding the different bugs and reporting them to my programmers.
If I had to restart this project, I would make sure that each level was less difficult, while keeping the fast-paced and frantic gameplay feel. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of doing a lot of playtests during development, for when we are plunged inside a game, it is very hard to see a lot of details that are problematic and make the game easy for newcomers. We, as developers, get simply too good at our own games and this is something very important to keep in mind at every stage of development. We also tend to lack objectivity, and that makes it hard to see all the flaws present in our games. I’ve learned since then the importance of being humble and doing tons and tons of playtests. This is not something to be taken lightly.
Feast your ears with this excellent soundtrack created for Shuttle Rush by the very talented Emery Monzerol.
