Battle of the Alien Invaders

Development Summary:

Game: Battle of the Alien Invaders
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Team Size: 9 Developers
Development Time: 4 months
Platform: PC
Genre: Multiplayer, Objective-based, First Person Shooter

Responsibilities:

Level Designer and Part-time Artist
Prototyped and white-boxed multiple maps to discover fun gameplay opportunities and bolstered the game's atmosphere
Codesigned, developed and cluttered the final level including pickup placement and base layout
Collaborated with art team to create several in-game assets ranging from stoves and plates, to large canyon walls
Implemented and polished the level's exterior spaces ensuring players could not escape and giving the level depth
Voiced the leader of both teams to concisely convey necessary information

Game Overview:

As part of my second Team Game Production course, I worked alongside eight of my classmates to build a capture-the-flag game in Unreal 4. As Blastworks Studios my team created Battle of the Alien Invaders a multiplayer, first-person-shooter where players took on the role of opposing alien forces invading Earth during the 1950's. To win, players needed to steal the enemy team's power cell and bring it back to their ship to score, first team to reach a preset limit won the match. Players fought with a pair of unique weapons, a raygun and a radiation rifle, each with two firing modes. The raygun, which players always spawned with, primarily acted as a pistol while the secondary fire produced a shield. We developed this weapon in order to allow players to always have a role. The radiation rifle was the more powerful weapon, allowing players to kill with a single headshot and launched gas grenades a part of the secondary fire. To facilitate the fast-paced, agile gameplay we wanted, we gave the players a jump-pack that allowed players to leap several feet after a short charge. This lead to many design opportunities such as vertical levels, up/over/on/and through gameplay, and long distance leaps. We also developed a unique secondary game mode where teams needed to recover a "strange human artifact" (A jukebox), and protect it while the ship beamed it up. Overall, the project was successful and taught me many lessons about the design and development process, the importance of prototyping, and how to work as part of a team.

A shot of the Diner level, shows many of the different routes players can take to accomplish their goal and defeat the enemy

Level Overview: Diner

Throughout the development of Battle of the Alien Invaders we often sketched out map ideas through pen and paper and whiteboxed several ideas in order to discover the fun and feeling we wanted. With each of these prototypes, we had several design goals we wanted to push and explore:

Verticality
Multiple routes to, from, and inside each base
Interesting, tactical choices
Convey the flavor of the setting

Diner was the final level we developed and shipped as part of Battle of the Alien Invaders. Throughout the development of this level, I worked to first layout the gameplay foundation using Unreal 4's landscaping tool being sure to round off hills, carve in ledges, and paint on much of the textures the art team prepared. Next I worked along side others to fill the space by placing boulders, stones, and cacti, and later using other landscaping tools to spread pebbles and build cover for various engagement zones. During this process, we also decided where we wanted the various pickups, including the normal ammunition packs, ammunition for the radiation rifle, and the actual radiation rifle pick up. Towards the end of the project, it fell to me to not only further block out the space with canyon walls, but to also develop the exterior space helping to anchor the level in a believable world and setting.

One of the many tasks I undertook as level designer was the development of the base layout for both teams. This topic was something the team and myself struggled with during most of the development as we endeavored to strike a balance between too easy to assault and too easy to defend. We knew we wanted the bases to be particularlly safe as this is where the players spawn in, but also because this is where players carrying the power cell would retreat to and hide if the enemy team also had their flag, preventing them from scoring. In order to create the best spaces possible, I collaborated with the art team to create simple forcefields which could be used to block enemy projectiles and duck behind in case of assault. I also positioned the crashes spaceships to act as formidable shield to protect both flag carriers, defenders, and spawners. For the other team, I made sure the shields were low enough to jump over I created and easy route into the base, but no easy out. This was to help foster teamwork, one player grabbing the power cell, the other firing at defenders or shielding the carrier. Even with minimal iterations, we still created a strong and fun play space for the bases providing tactical options for both sides of the conflict. As often happens with

Art Work:

At some point and time in development of Battle of the Alien Invaders, we realized our art team needed some help in order to get many of the assets we wanted into the game. As such, both myself and the lead level designer stepped up and asked what we could do to assist the art team. Thanks to this collaboration, I had the opportunity to practice my art skills and explore programs and techniques I never would have otherwise. Alongside the art lead, I worked on small assets such as plates, cups, and a stove for the diner to large assets such as some of the boulders that litter the area to the cliff walls which define the whole gameplay space. One of my favorite assets I created during this time was a large atomic bomb, which unfortunately was not used in the final project. I got to learn some aspects of Mudbox, some new texturing techniques, and have a rewarding experience that I look forward to exploring in future projects if the opportunity presents itself.

Post Mortem:

I take pride in the work I accomplished while a part of Blastwork studios and what we accomplished as a whole. We created a fun foundation for a good game idea, we crafted two fun weapons one of which had a unique shield mechanic; balanced, tested, and finalized a cool variant where the teams competed to beam up a human artifact (a Jukebox), as well as other accomplishments. Being a part of building both the project and the team, I learned not only about the process of game creation, assets pipelines, various tools, and the basics of level design; I also learned how to better handle working with a team, when to question decisions, and how to better support those around me. Battle of the Alien Invaders is something I hope to never forget - and so, too, are the lessons I learned from it.

I worked on Battle of the Alien Invaders alongside the other members of Blastworks Studios listed below:

Producer: Marc Mixon

Game Designer: Lauryn Gordon

Lead Level Designer: Kevin Kim

Level Designer: Christian Erali

Lead Artist: Soraya Abtahi

Artist: Ben Parise

Lead Programmer: Tyler George

Programmer: Albert Chen

Programmer: Christian Walker