Space That Thing
DigiPen - Junior Game Project (2016 - 2017)

Role: Designer & Producer

The Team

Joanna Robb - Designer
Chase De La Cruz - Designer
Jerry Nacier - Designer
Jason Bray - Lua Integration & Networking Programmer
Kyler Elmer - Sound Programmer
Chris Knue - Programmer
Carsten Ronshaugen - Sound Designer
Michael 'Miki' Bishop - Art Lead & Character Artist
Fernanda Coelho - Character Animator
Kailey Hara - Creature Artist
Dean Ely - Creature Animator
Roxanne Sparks - Environment Artist
Robert Simpson - Environment Artist
Richard Gonzales - Rigger & Prop Artist

Description

Space That Thing is a networked game where players must maintain a spaceship until it reaches its destination. However, there is a creature hiding among the crew. One of the players has become something else, a creature of the void wearing a humanoid disguise. This creature's goal is to convert the crew to its own evil form, or eliminate them all, before they reach their destination.

Paper Prototype

This game was much more complex than our last, The Blade in the Bark, and we wanted to make sure that the design was solid before any implementation started. As such we created a paper prototype. Work I did on it:
  • Worked with Ian Robb and Chase De La Cruz on the core design of the game. This includes player mechanics, social mechanics, and the functions of the ship.
  • The creation of the character cards, action cards, and the destination cards.

Level Design

  • As part of the ‘Ship’ sub-team, I worked with team members to paper design the layout of the rooms in the ship.
  • In conjunction with Chase De La Cruz, I worked to create and iterate on a whitebox of the ship.
  • Near the end of the project I did a complete lighting pass on the ship to improve guidance and visibility.

Ship Systems

​I created most the functionality of the ship’s systems in Unreal Blueprints. This includes the functionality for most of the rooms (such as the Power Cores, Engines, etc) and the ways in which those rooms interact with each other. In the early stages of the project I also worked on several features that didn’t make it into the final game. This included a system which flickered and dimmed lights based on the state of the Power Cores, and the functionality for the Cargo Bay, which was cut.