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Overview:

Captain Blood and the Black Witch takes place in a world where airships have enabled vast empires and dread sky pirates ply the clouds.  The player pilots the Black Witch, Captain Blood’s airship, and can attack the trade ships of the three major empires, pirate hunters or even other pirates.  Alternatively, the player can engage in trade, buying and selling goods at different cities to accumulate the vast wealth requires to buy new upgrades and weapons for the Black Witch and even form their own pirate flotilla to rival even the strongest empires.  Meanwhile, as Captain Blood’s infamy grows, he unlocks opportunities for revenge against the bosses of the Enigma pirate organization, working his way up to the Enigma itself.

Tasks:

• Pitched the original game concept for greenlight
• Served as Producer for a team of 13 developers (3 programmers, 1 artist and 9 level designers)
• Designed how the economic and combat systems would work
• Worked with configuration files to balance weapons
• Worked with configuration files to balance the economy
• Wrote over half of the dialog in the game
• Created the water material in the combat maps using the UDK material editor
• Created and maintained the schedule, asset development plan, asset database and other documentation
• Served as the ScrumMaster
• Found and implemented all of the sounds and music
• Lead team-wide design discussions throughout the project
• Conducted internal and external playtesting and issue tracking

Development Time: ~1,900 hours over 16 weeks (~146 per developer)

Design Goals:

• Create a dynamic world that feels alive and responds to the player’s actions and choices
• Make our combat quick, fun and tactical while being casual friendly
• Give the game as much depth as possible while still keeping it simple and easy to learn
• Give the player as much choice and customization as we could

Post Mortem:

What went well

• Our economy manages to feel very dynamic even though the underlying system is very simple
• The AI for the combat feels good, especially after we allowed the AI to “cheat” slightly to avoid collisions, resulting in a lot of exciting close calls
• Trade is very intuitive, it is easy to tell how to make a profit
• We completed a very ambitious project on a very tight schedule

What could have been better

• We had planned to add a “job board” system that would allow players to pick up quests in cities but decided we did would not have the time to properly test and polish it
• We could have made our ships and combat more animated if we had more than one artist

What I learned

• A lot about systems design and how to create self-balancing systems
• It is a good idea to start at the core of your game, get it fun and then layer the rest of your systems around that
• How to tell which systems can be cut from the game without diminishing it and which absolutely must be there to make the game fun

Download Level

Overview:

Players take on the role of Ishmael in this Fallout 3 mod based loosely on the works of Herman Melville.  The player joins a caravan headed to the town of Dust Falls but is ambushed by super mutants along the way.  Later, a scripted event shows Orco, an albino super mutant behemoth, destroying the caravan and knocking the player unconscious.

The player wakes up in the town of Dust Falls without their gear.  Four side quests and hidden items around town give rewards catering to different playstyles (stealth, medicine & science, small guns and energy weapons).  Using these rewards, the player can either find a fatman mini-nuke launcher and obliterate Orco or sneak past the behemoth to retrieve their gear.

Tasks:

• Designed and constructed the entire area using the art assets available
• Created a simple re-texture to make Orco an albino behemoth
• Scripted all of the quests and events (including the cut scene)
• Wrote and implemented all of the dialog
• Scripted all of the NPC AI schedules

Development Time: ~200 hours over 10 weeks

Design Goals:

• Make the player feel invested in the characters and town of Dust Falls with side quests and dialog.
• Give the player a reason to hate the villainous Orco by getting to know his victim’s friends and family, and by stealing the player’s inventory—all of which makes destroying him with a mini-nuke launcher more satisfying.
• Create opportunities for multiple play styles and player choice in achieving objectives.
• Bring the town of Dust Falls to life with environmental storytelling and attention to detail.

Gameplay Clips:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16UjZS-GnnM

• Squad-based Combat: I set up two ambushes where the super mutants have the high ground against the player.  I did a couple of things to make these encounters seem and feel harder than they really are.  Firstly, I made sure to use non-exploding cars as cover so the player would have somewhere to hide.  Secondly, I gave many of the super mutants miniguns, which sound and look very impressive (especially when most of the bullets are hitting the player’s cover) but aren’t terribly effective at long range.  Thirdly, I made two of the player’s squad members essential NPCs, so even a player focused on non-combat skills could complete the encounter.  Fallout 3 does have a cover system with its navmesh so I set that up.  I also had to modify the combat behaviors of the NPCs so that the caravan squad would use the cover and the super mutants would ambush properly and not run around the cliff to try and attack the player.  The flanking super mutants on the ground are scripted to engage the player after a delay when they are preoccupied with the mutants on the cliff.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1d_oYgovns

• Caravan Dialog: Here I tried to make the player feel invested in the characters in the caravan who will be killed by Orco later.  I wanted to give each NPC their own “voice” and to try and tie them into the town (for instance, Pip mentioning his mom and Flask talking about Sparks) so that meeting those characters later is more meaningful.  The player has the opportunity to give Flask some whiskey, which unlocks dialog options with Sparks later.

Walkthrough

Call Me Ishmael Walkthrough – PDF

Player Start & Caravan Camp

The player enters the world space through a drainage pipe outside of Vault 101 (location is merely for convenience when testing).  Starbuck is scripted to approach the player and initiate dialog as soon as the player enters the area.  She warns the player that the road ahead is dangerous if they are planning to travel to Dust Falls, but her caravan should be leaving soon if the player wants to join them.  She directs the player to talk to Jonah because he is in charge.  A speech skill challenge will tell the player that Starbuck has some serious misgivings about the voyage despite being loyal to Jonah.

Talking to Flask about Dust Falls triggers a small quest that lets the player give him some whiskey if they have any on them.  Whether or not the player gives Flask some whiskey, this dialog option opens up a side quest with Sparks later on in Dust Falls.

Pip, a young boy who aspires to be like Jonah and have his own caravan someday will sell the player miscellaneous weapons and armor.

Speaking with Jonah will tell the player that a) he is clearly a little crazy and b) a behemoth named Orco is responsible for the danger ahead.  Once the player is ready to head out, they can tell Jonah and the caravan will begin moving for Dust Falls.  The NPCs are all scripted to being a patrol behavior on paths along the road.  Each NPC has a separate set of markers to prevent them from bunching up on a point and becoming stuck.

First Ambush

The caravan enters the area from the right and triggers the ambush spawners.  Two of the five mutants have miniguns and the rest have rifles.  The player can use the non-exploding car and guard rails as cover.  After a few seconds, melee mutants spawn just out of view around the bend in the road and flank the caravan from the left.  The miniguns make a lot of noise and look impressive but are fairly ineffective at this range and the caravan NPCs are relatively powerful, making this an encounter that feels a lot harder than it really is.  Starbuck and Jonah are also flagged as essential during this phase of the quest so even a non-combat oriented character can still make it through this encounter.  Melee oriented characters have the flanking super mutants to deal with but mostly have to rely on the rest of the caravan to handle the super mutants.  The exploding car is often destroyed by a hail of errant minigun bullets but is far enough away from the player to not be a danger.

A new combat style is applied to all of the caravan members to help make the encounter more consistent.  The chance of the NPCs taking cover behind the car is very high and a lower combat radius and ranged weapon restrictions help to make sure that the firefight goes as planned.

Second Ambush

The second ambush is much like the first, with a similar set up.  However, at this point it is likely that the caravan has suffered some casualties and one of the super mutants has a missile launcher, making this encounter a bit more difficult than the first.

The caravan enters from the upper right and exits on the left to a small canyon area just outside of Dust Falls.

Orco Attacks Cut Scene

The cut scene is triggered when the player crosses into the mouth of the canyon.  The player can briefly see Dust Falls, their objective, up on the ridge above.  However, as soon as the player triggers the event their controls are disabled, the buses in front of them explode violently and the player is stunned by a flash of white light before falling to the ground.  Their vision sways and fades to black as secondary explosions go off and Orco approaches.  The albino behemoth is the last thing they see before the screen goes completely black and begins loading the next area.

The scripting for the event is based on parts of similar events in Vault 87 and the GNR exterior.  Orco is enabled by the trigger and then patrols towards the player, killing any caravan members remaining.  Starbuck and Jonah’s essential flag is unset so they are killable.  After the player is fully unconscious, any surviving caravan members are killed via script and Orco is disabled.  The player is then teleported to Noah’s house in Dust Falls.

When the player wakes up in Noah’s house they are told that he managed to rescue him/her during the night.  He gives the player a 10mm pistol, a combat knife and merc troublemaker outfit for clothes.  He urges the player not to seek revenge but tells him/her that the rest of their possessions are probably in Orco’s hoard and if they are going to take him on they might find more weapons by the abandoned military base.

Beware the People Weeping Side Quest

The first side quest is given to the player by Noah when they wake up in his house.  Noah informs the player that they are the only survivor from the caravan and asks him to give Pip’s hat to his mother, Karen.  The main purpose of this quest is to give the player a reason to explore the town a bit and find the other side quests that are available.

When the player gives the hat to Karen they have the option of either lying to her and telling her that Pip is still alive and in hiding or telling her the truth that her son is dead.  Either option completes the quest; however, if the player tells her the truth she gives him/her a stealth boy that was meant for Pip.

Microwaveable Side Quest

This side quest is available through talking with Sparks, the proprietor of the Glowing Bowl.  Sparks is a non-feral glowing one with an offbeat sense of humor.  Food is getting scarce in Dust Falls due to Orco’s raids on caravans coming into the town.  However, he informs the player that there might be some rations over by the abandoned military base and that he would pay for anything the player can bring back.  Unfortunately, the military base is swarming with army protectrons that the play will need to either kill or avoid.  This quest is repeatable and Sparks will always buy Salisbury steak from the player even though there is a limited supply at the military base.  The reward for giving Sparks food is 25 caps and 5 experience per item given.

Triage Side Quest

The player can start this side quest at any time by talking to Nurse Kacie in the Dust Falls hospital.  The town’s doctor has died and if the player has any kind of medical experience, she could use the help tending to the wounded.  If the player agrees to help she gives them three stimpaks can tells them to save as many of the patients as possible.

There are four patients with injuries of varying severity.  The most injured patient dies 30 seconds after starting the quest and the other three die in 30 second intervals in order of severity (after 120 seconds, all of the patients are dead).  The player can save a patient by either using a stimpak on them or, if their medical skill is high enough, perform surgery.  However, the more severe the patient’s wounds, the higher the medical skill the player needs to be able to perform surgery.  Saving a patient increases the player’s karma slightly.

Once all of the patients have either been saved or are dead the quest is completed.  The player keeps any remaining stimpaks they have not used as a reward.  Completing this quest gives players who specialize in medicine a leg up, especially since characters with a high medicine skill will benefit the most from the stimpaks.  Of course, an unscrupulous character can simply take the stimpaks for themselves and leave the patients to die.

Super Mutant Camp

Three super mutants with hunting rifles patrol the area outside of Orco’s Lair.  The player can either sneak by them (especially if they have found a stealth boy) or kill the mutants.  As the player moves towards the cave entrance to Orco’s lair, a message box pops up telling them to inspect the bodies of the dead Brahmin caravan for weapons where the player can find a fatman and six mini nukes.

Orco’s Lair

Orco’s lair is in a giant cave under the mutant camp.  Orco patrols around the main cavern with another super mutant.  The player can sneak past Orco and head into the side cave that contains the inventory stolen from them by Orco earlier along with a fatman and mini nukes in case the player missed picking them up from the dead Brahmin outside the cave.

The quest is actually completed as soon as the player retrieves their inventory; killing Orco is not actually necessary and the player can choose to forsake vengeance if they so choose.  However, if the player wants to kill the behemoth, the cave assets have been scaled up to allow for an open enough area to properly use a fatman.

LDD:

FLEMMING_Fallout3_Overview

Post Mortem:

What went well

• My scripted ambushes and squad combat created unique gameplay experiences that stand out
• My scripted in-game cutscene helps establish Orco as a villain and not just another enemy
• The Triage side quest uses scripting to create an interesting mini-game and lets the player use their non-combat skills
• I was able to account for and reward different play styles, character builds and player choices
• Environmental storytelling and dialog bring the NPCs to life and give them personality

What could have been better

• My initial plans were overscoped for the 6 weeks of development that I had and I ended up having to cut the interior of the military base
• I modeled and imported a working Colt Navy pistol to give the player as a reward but did not have the time to texture it

What I learned

• I learned a lot about how much I could accomplish in a given amount of time and how to scope my levels better
• I learned about text-based scripting using the GECK’s scripting tools

Gallery (click to enlarge):

Download Level

Overview:

Tankopolis is a city… built on top of a tank.  DM17-Tankopolis is my take on both the Tankopolis IP and the classic DM17 map from Quake 3 recreated as a 16-player deathmatch map for Unreal Tournament 3.  The map features scripted events, large and small, that bring the city to life.  Tankopolis’s main cannon fires periodically at distant enemies while sky-scrappers burn from incoming fire.  A bullet train speeds around the map, knocking off players who risk running along the tracks.  A broken fire-hydrant spews water onto the street.  Just another day in the life of a citizen of Tankopolis.

Tasks:

• Designed and constructed the entire level using the art assets available
• Scripted multiple events, including the cannon firing and bullet train
• Imported and implemented sounds

Development Time: ~80 hours over 3 weeks

Design Goals:

• Recreate the excitement and frantic pace of the original DM17 in UT3 while adding new gameplay elements.
• Bring the city-tank of Tankopolis to life with scripted events like the city’s main cannon firing and a bullet train speeding through the level.
• Create a level that comfortably contains a 16 player free-for-all deathmatch in UT3
• Retain the general layout of DM17 while giving the map the feeling of being inside of a city.
• Use the movement of the cannon when firing and the train tunnel to offset the dominance of the sniper platform.

Maps:

LDD:

Flemming_DM17LDD

Post Mortem / Design Thoughts:

What went well

• I captured the feel of the original Quake 3 DM-17
• I managed to superimpose an environment that still feels like a city onto the odd shape and structure of DM-17
• The train scripted event was an instant hit with playtesters

What could have been better

• I wasn’t able to spend as much time fleshing out the skybox around the level as I would have liked

What I learned

• I learned a lot about level flow and layout for a multiplayer map

Gallery (click to enlarge):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cYq5rSIDGA

Download Level

Overview:

The lambent boomer encounter is a boss fight created through extensive kismet scripting.  The fight takes place in a tight, circular room where Dom and Marcus must maneuver to use cover against the lambent boomer.  However, after taking a set amount of damage, the lambent boomer explodes into a flock of kryll and escapes while an emergence hole opens, forcing the players to shift positions. Once the enemies from the emergence hole have been defeated, the lambent boomer returns to the fight.  After closing four emergence holes with increasingly difficult combinations of enemies, Dom and Marcus can destroy the lambent boomer for good.

Tasks:

• Designed and constructed the entire level using the art assets available
• Scripted boss AI and phases, including emergence hole encounters
• Created intro cutscene using matinée
• Created dynamic torchlight with matinée
• All of the lighting

Development Time: ~30 hours over 1 week

Design Goals:

• Create an interesting boss fight for Gears of War using scripting to do something new but still familiar to the player.
• Use an interesting cover layout to create an encounter that keeps the player on the move.
• Create a lot of gameplay in a tight, efficient space.

Post Mortem / Design Thoughts:

What went well

• I was able to get a tremendous amount of gameplay out of a very small space
• The AI for the lambent boomer boss is actually very simple but feels very cunning in the game
• I was able to keep the player moving through cover constantly, both around the perimeter of the room and from the interior to the exterior
• The pace and difficulty is challenging but not overbearing

What could have been better

• I was so unhappy with the original design for this assignment that I scrapped it entirely but still had to finish the assignment in half the time

What I learned

• I learned that sometimes it really is better to scrap a project that just isn’t working and start over to find the fun

Gallery (click to enlarge):

Overview:

Legend of the Monkey King: Quest for the Eighteen Zodiac Sutras is a platforming style boss fight made with UDK.  Players must use the Monkey King’s cloudwalking ability to glide to victory against the Jade Emperor.  The boss fight covers the celestial palace and three mini-levels: the fire, water and storm islands.  After each phase of the fight, the Jade Emperor flings the Monkey King to one of the islands where he must collect a new elemental power to use against the Jade Emperor.

Tasks:

• Team lead and producer roles for a team of 10 developers (3 programmers, 2 artists and 5 level designers)
• Scrum master
• Created schedule and asset development plan as well as maintained asset database
• Facilitated inter-department discussions
• Designed and created entire Storm Island mini-level using available art assets
• Created rock assets in 3DS Max (did not do the texture)
• Found and implemented all of the sounds and music

Development Time: ~720 hours over 6 weeks (~72 hours per developer)

Design Goals:

• Find ways to use our most interesting mechanic: the Monkey King’s cloudwalking glide ability.
• Keep the fight visually interesting with 4 unique environments while keeping our asset list to under 20 art assets through creative re-use of assets.
• Take creative liberties while remaining respectful of the original stories of the Monkey King.

Gallery (click to enlarge):

Download Level

Overview:

Roach Motel is a single-player level for Gears of War with about 10 minutes of fast-paced, action-oriented gameplay.  In an alternate beginning to the original, after being freed from prison Dom and Marcus need to find and link up with Delta Squad; however, Delta is currently bunkered down in the courtyard of an abandoned hotel waiting for extraction.  The level revolves around the hotel lobby, which is full of destructible cover.  The flow of the level reuses this space for three separate combat encounters.

Initially Dom and Marcus are coming through the front door and the locusts have the high ground, fortunately, some timely air support evens the odds.  Later, Dom and Marcus fend off a locust counter-attack in the lobby and have the advantage of the high ground against a boomer.  Finally, they encounter a horde of wretches on the ground floor while their air support battles nemecysts overhead and one of their helicopters goes down.  The mission ends with Dom and Marcus finally linking up with Delta Squad as their air support pulls out.  Delta is going to have to get to the rally point on foot…

Tasks:

• Designed and constructed the entire level using the art assets available
• Designed and implemented all of the encounters
• Scripted all events and encounters, including destructible cover
• Created in-game cutscene using matinée
• All of the lighting

Development Time: ~100 hours over 6 weeks

Design Goals:

• Use radio chatter and sounds of battle to make the player feel like they are part of a larger battle.
• Use destructible cover to give the player interesting tactical options.
• Reuse my space as much as possible with new combat encounters from different angles.
• Keep the level interesting with good pacing that allows for brief cool-down moments before launching back into the action.
• Recreate the cinematic feel of Gears of War.

Maps:

LDD:

FLEMMING_GoW_LDD

Post Mortem / Design Thoughts:

What went well

• I captured the cinematic look and feel of Gears of War
• The level has great pacing and flow that keeps the player’s interest
• I was able to reuse my spaces for multiple encounters while introducing new gameplay each time
• Destructible cover in the lobby area creates dynamic tactical options through the three different encounters that take place there

What could have been better

• I was limited in the audio clips I could use based on the existing recorded audio, with more time I could have recorded new audio
• Even for a rainy, overcast day my lighting was a bit too dark

What I learned

• I learned a lot about creating cinematics with matinée
• I learned quite a bit about lighting both in terms of general principles and in Unreal technology specifically

Gallery (click to enlarge):

Overview:

F.L.E.A. is a 2D platformer created with TorqueX.  The player pilots the F.L.E.A. tank which moves in hops and can jump incredibly high.  The F.L.E.A. is also armed with a limited number of sticky bombs which it can shoot at enemies and attach to surfaces.  In addition to destroying enemy tanks, the F.L.E.A. can jump onto sticky bombs to get a boost jump.  Much of the gameplay revolves around clever use of sticky bombs to progress.  Later levels also introduce a flare mechanic where the F.L.E.A. must launch flares to light its way through the level and avoid pitfalls.

Tasks:

• Team lead and producer roles for a team of 4 developers (1 artist, 1 programmer and 2 level designers)
• Served as ScrumMaster
• Created schedule and asset development plan as well as maintained asset database
• Researched and implemented the 2D lighting component
• Designed and created the tutorial, third and fourth levels
• Found and implemented all of the sounds and music
• Conducted internal and external playtesting and issue tracking

Development Time: ~384 hours over 6 weeks (~96 hours per developer)

Design Goals:

• Create tight gameplay with all of our mechanics feeding back into jumping
• Become the first team at the Guildhall to use the lighting system in Torque and create interesting gameplay and visuals with it
• Focus on interesting jumping puzzle platforming over shooting

Gallery (click to enlarge):