Project Breakdown
Brief
Losing Grip is a Fast-FPS where the goal is to go through levels as quickly as possible.
Using Oxytos an artifact allowing you to navigate the game using a grappling hook.
Team
For this project, we worked as 5, all game design students. We have divided the sectors according to the needs of the project and the desires of each person. Here is the breakdown:
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Me as Game Designer and Project Manager
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Two Level Designer
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One UI/UX Designer
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One developer
Project Goals
Our main objective was to create a demo of the game intended for a game designer jury which would take place in June 2024.
Primary Responsibilities
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Gameplay Mechanics and Prototyping
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Team Workflow Management
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Technical Writing / Documentation
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Q/A
Other Hats
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Help with some Level Layouts
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Level Art pipeline
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Implement some of the UX elements
Design
Grappling Hook
The grappling hook is the core gameplay of the game, it's the main tool for the player to cross levels.
Our goal was to create a tool that the player could use to launch themselves into the air at high speed in order to cross levels.
Schema
Prototype
Final Version
Obstacles
The purpose of obstacles is to energize gameplay by putting interactive elements in the player's path.
The main gameplay being based on speed and execution, the obstacles had to be designed with affordance in mind while remaining interesting through various uses (from simplest to complex).
Some of these may be beneficial. In addition, these serve as guidance for the player through the levels.
Some examples
Mine 1
Mine 2
Final Version
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Kill the player on hit
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Ungrappable
Both
Team Management
Once the concept was established, I immediately started discussing with the team to put in place tools to help us during production.
The goal of these tools was to allow everyone to have a space to note their different tasks, while having the possibility of having an overview to respect the production times of certain elements
We chose an agile production method because it was best suited for the size of the team. We organized periods of Rush which started and ended with meetings.
Furthermore, I also organized post-mortem meetings after certain deadlines, during which we could talk about the production in general but also talk openly about the problems we had between us.
During pre-production, I developed our first tool on Google Sheets, having been used to using this tool and liking to start from scratch. During production, we switched to codecks.io knowing that I would not necessarily have the time to maintain the Google Sheets during this period, plus I was quite familiar with the tool.
Documentation
For this project, I took charge of writing all the documents related to the production and presentation of the project. Including, a Game Goc (Wiki online and physical version), a book of Specifications and other technical documents.