Samuel Schlenker, System Designer
Project Overview
Marauder No. 9 is a 2.5D shooter-platformer built in Unity and released on Itch.io that I developed over the course of a semester with a group of students. This page showcases my contributions to the project and its progression from beginning to completion.
Marauder No. 9 is a sci-fi, 2.5D shooter-platformer where you play as a high-tech bounty hunter armed to the teeth who is tasked with eliminating a spaceship full of deadly robots from the inside. Making their way through multiple timed missions, the player must learn to master their arsenal of weapons and abilities as they gather new upgrades and equipment inside this hostile environment.
Team Size: 5
Major Contributions
- System Design: Designed gameplay systems and worked with scriptors to create a framework for multiple systems
- Gameplay Design: Designed and created concept sheets for gameplay mechanics and worked with scriptors to turn gameplay concepts into final mechanics
- Visualization: Helped with the visualization and concepting phase of development including the player concept, environment references, and UI references
- VFX: Implemented the explosion effects into the game using Unity's free effects suite
- Player Animation: Implemented the player animations into the game using scripts and Unity's Player Animator
Production
Final Gameplay/Mechanics
All of the core mechanics made it into the final demo, but they did not all make it in as originally planned. Some mechanics such as the hover mechanic were given extra functionality, now allowing the player to move while hovering akin to a jet pack. Other mechanics such as the grenade roll made are functionally the same as the mechanic was originally but did not receive the visual polish that was intended.
Prototyping
Once the suite of player mechanics were determined and documented, the next step was to work with the programming team to prototype and create a solid framework to iterate upon. This meant creating rapid-prototypes to test mechanics which were then improved and finalized to create the final mechanics.
Pre-Production
Call Out Sheet
After the team settled on the gameplay direction, it was my job as the systems designer to create a set of core mechanics for our player character. The systems I ended up drafting in this call out sheet were: a defensive shield raise mechanic, a grenade roll/detonate mechanic, a hover mechanic, and an energy shield reflect mechanic. This call out sheet was used to communicate to the programming team what the goal of each system was.
Brainstorming/Finding References
The development process began with finding references and inspiration for the type of game we wanted to build as a team. The two games we were using as heavy inspiration were Metroid Dread (2021, pictured right) and Shadow Complex (2007, pictured left). These references set the tone for pre-production, especially as it relates to system and gameplay design.
Credits
Jalin Johnson: Environment Artist, Lighting Artist, Asset Collection, 3D Modeler, Rigging Artist, Character Texture Artist, Character Animation
Lee Rodgers: Character Animation, Project Management, Level Design, Audio
Tim Lin: Scriptor, Gameplay Programmer
Matthew Meldrum: Scriptor, UI Programmer
Samuel Schlenker: System Designer, Gameplay Designer
Mabry Schlenker: 2D Concept Artist
