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Description coming soon!
Description coming soon!
Arcane Legends was the final game I worked on while at Spacetime Studios. The title was a spiritual successor to Pocket Legends, but offered a higher quality overall experience. Unlike previous Legends titles, in this game the campaigns were not isolated areas that lived on their own. Zones connected to one another and trading posts as well as towns were found throughout the world. Additionally, players could acquire pets that would fight alongside them with their own unique abilities.
Please note that this portfolio entry is still in progress and media has not yet been added. For reference, I’ve included a gameplay video further below to illustrate some of the features called out.
Arcane Legends launched with one player town that your adventure continued from. I was responsible for the overall direction and design of how the town would work.
Towne
Upon completion of the new player tutorial, players would arrive in a town that housed entryways to new zones, a tavern, guild hall, pvp battles, and more. I established an overall layout and flow based on expected player movement. Additionally, I worked with the artists to decide on overall themes needed for the outward appearance of buildings so that their function was relayed visually. Through iteration, we would determine appropriate foot prints, spacing, and overall object density once props were added. Once complete, work moved to the interior of buildings and how transitions would be most clearly communicated. In the end, the town came out great and achieved it’s goal of being easy to navigate while providing several functions to the player from the start.
In addition to the town, I was responsible for several systems on the game. I assisted with multi state object setup, player creation framing and setup, some basic UI and more. However, the combat system and the enemy AI comprised the bulk of my work. These both proved to be equally challenging and rewarding as I attempted some concepts that required extensive planning upfront. The end result was fast paced action combat that allowed a lot of customization by the player in the form of different class builds.
Arcane Legends had three archetypes that you could play from: the warrior, the sorcerer, and the rogue. In establishing the overall pacing and feel, I referenced more action oriented RPGs like Diablo and Torchlight. While the game needed the provide a challenge, I wanted it to feel fast paced and so my focus relied more on mob density that you fought through than one on one encounters.
Additionally, I wanted the combat to really look “fun”. Our visual style already helped a great deal with this as it had a semi cell shaded look to it. But I wanted others to look over and feel like they wanted to try the game. This came about in the usage of VFX, sounds, and overall exaggeration of animations.
Progression let you purchase abilities to use and rank up, but I also introduced a modifier system that let you allocate points into individual aspects of an ability on an individual ability system. This would result in some abilities changing from cone to area attacks, removing snares, adding buffs and more. Scripting abilities with this in mind meant each component in an ability’s execution required enough modularity to change on the fly depending on the upgrade path of the player.
In the end, my work on the classes encompassed almost all of my time – core movement, animation hierarchy and setup, ability design, ability balancing, weapon and ability animation/sound/vfx hookup, modifications to vfx/sound as needed, Iconography coordination and final polish.
Warrior
The Warrior was the brute force combatant in the game, with a focus on weaponry and physical based attacks.
Sorcerer
The Sorcerer conjured energy in various forms both innate and elemental.
Rogue
The Rogue served as the master of traps, able to serve more defensively utilizing her traps while firing from afar with her bow.
I wanted buff and debuffs to be clearly conveyed on the player, without requiring too much thought on what they meant. To achieve this, I decided on a basic system that used red to signify a negative effect with blue implying a positive one. Rather than create an icon for every effect permutation, they were distilled down to categorical concepts – armor, movement, damage, etc. With this established, we were able to combine them into a language that easily provided the player with enough information to grasp what effects were occurring in combat, while not requiring them to memorize specific details.
Previous Legends titles had the enemies using a canned death animation. With Arcane Legends, I felt it was important to make the deaths more contextual to really sell the impact of your weapons and abilities. To achieve this, I worked with the art team to get a suite of basic death animations and visual effects of varying elements. Using these assets as well as engine capabilities to apply force on targets, we were able to get much more creative on how creatures died.
Heavy physical attacks could launch a target further back than it’s normal counterpart. Heavy fire attacks could cause them to blow up into smoldering ash. Similarly, creatures had purpose after their death as well. Certain deaths caused area damage or provided additional obstacles depending on which ability and it’s modifier were used. The overall dynamic made creatures feel like the way you attacked them mattered.
Dark Legends was a game based on horror themes and classic mythological creatures including vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Unlike previous Spacetime Studios titles, Dark Legends focus was on compact single player missions that could be completed in a few minutes. Players could meet in the main town and trade goods acquired from these missions with one another. Bringing up a map would let players advance through a linear mission structure with subsequent missions unlocked after a period of time (or with purchased currency).
My responsibilities on Dark Legends involved bringing online all the base creature AI behavior. These included NPCs that were vendors in town as well as all creatures you fought that weren’t part of a boss battle.
Behaviors were created for all sorts of enemy types including zombies both large and thing with different game mechanics (similar to games like Left for Dead), Werewolves, Skeletons, and others. Since these creatures were re-used throughout the entirety of the game, I focused on trying to provide multiple move sets to give more synergy between the different creatures when used together.
Additionally, I scripted a new spawn in system from scratch that used “tagging” in the form of flags, which let designers place these creatures easily and still have them perform spawn in animations that made sense for the environment.
Unfortunately, I don’t have video footage showcasing all the creatures, however, you can see some of them in action in the video below.
In addition to the town, I was responsible for several systems on the game. I assisted with multi state object setup, player creation framing and setup, some basic UI and more. However, the combat system and the enemy AI comprised the bulk of my work. These both proved to be equally challenging and rewarding as I attempted some concepts that required extensive planning upfront. The end result was fast paced action combat that allowed a lot of customization by the player in the form of different class builds.
Arcane Legends had three archetypes that you could play from: the warrior, the sorcerer, and the rogue. In establishing the overall pacing and feel, I referenced more action oriented RPGs like Diablo and Torchlight. While the game needed the provide a challenge, I wanted it to feel fast paced and so my focus relied more on mob density that you fought through than one on one encounters.
Additionally, I wanted the combat to really look “fun”. Our visual style already helped a great deal with this as it had a semi cell shaded look to it. But I wanted others to look over and feel like they wanted to try the game. This came about in the usage of VFX, sounds, and overall exaggeration of animations.
Progression let you purchase abilities to use and rank up, but I also introduced a modifier system that let you allocate points into individual aspects of an ability on an individual ability system. This would result in some abilities changing from cone to area attacks, removing snares, adding buffs and more. Scripting abilities with this in mind meant each component in an ability’s execution required enough modularity to change on the fly depending on the upgrade path of the player.
In the end, my work on the classes encompassed almost all of my time – core movement, animation hierarchy and setup, ability design, ability balancing, weapon and ability animation/sound/vfx hookup, modifications to vfx/sound as needed, Iconography coordination and final polish.
Warrior
The Warrior was the brute force combatant in the game, with a focus on weaponry and physical based attacks.
Sorcerer
The Sorcerer conjured energy in various forms both innate and elemental.
Rogue
The Rogue served as the master of traps, able to serve more defensively utilizing her traps while firing from afar with her bow.
I wanted buff and debuffs to be clearly conveyed on the player, without requiring too much thought on what they meant. To achieve this, I decided on a basic system that used red to signify a negative effect with blue implying a positive one. Rather than create an icon for every effect permutation, they were distilled down to categorical concepts – armor, movement, damage, etc. With this established, we were able to combine them into a language that easily provided the player with enough information to grasp what effects were occurring in combat, while not requiring them to memorize specific details.
Previous Legends titles had the enemies using a canned death animation. With Arcane Legends, I felt it was important to make the deaths more contextual to really sell the impact of your weapons and abilities. To achieve this, I worked with the art team to get a suite of basic death animations and visual effects of varying elements. Using these assets as well as engine capabilities to apply force on targets, we were able to get much more creative on how creatures died.
Heavy physical attacks could launch a target further back than it’s normal counterpart. Heavy fire attacks could cause them to blow up into smoldering ash. Similarly, creatures had purpose after their death as well. Certain deaths caused area damage or provided additional obstacles depending on which ability and it’s modifier were used. The overall dynamic made creatures feel like the way you attacked them mattered.
Star Legends was the second mobile online title released by Spacetime Studios. Similar to Pocket Legends, Star Legends had players meeting up in social hubs and embarking on adventures in space in the form of campaigns. We introduced a new state system in Star Legends, that let designers implement more advanced gameplay using objects like doors, triggers, power sources and keycodes.
During my time working on Star Legends, I was responsible for the layout and construction of the Blackstar player town, as well as 3 unique campaigns that introduced the player to all new settings on different planets. With this being a new IP, we had more freedom to request new assets as needed, but still were careful in only requesting the assets that were most needed to sell the idea of the different locales.
Blackstar Player Base
The Blackstar ship housed all the important vendors that players could interact with to exchange goods acquired on campaigns. There were several wings that led players to different teleporters, leading them to the campaigns directly. I tried to give the illusion of a hangar deck with a crashed ship, as well as a bridge with a viewport out into space. Giving the feeling of depth was difficult given that the game was built on the concept of 2d movement, but I took some of the existing hallway assets and lowered them underneath the main courtyard area to make it appear as though there was a second level underneath.
Cycorp Industries
In Cycorp, players were tasked with infiltrating a corporation’s facility and getting key intel to a competing agency. Players would take down enemy security personnel, use key cards, and obtain critical documentation during their mission. As they progressed, they would come across an alien infestation that needed to be cleared to escape with their lives intact. This required the use of bombs and other destructive improvisational gear.
Sloucho Productions
Sloucho was a silly take on the whole seriousness of the sci fi genre. I wanted to get away from the sterility of some of the previous environment so I went with the theme of an intergalactic movie studio that had it’s droid staff go haywire on the human personnel. For the creatures, I used previous droid bodies and combined them with monitor assets that were re-textured to display player portrait avatars for their faces.
For the actual locales, I created movie sets that used existing assets from previous planets the player visited, to make it feel like various series of movies were in mid-production. I tried to make certain areas look like ‘prop rooms’ with aliens on sticks, hanging counterweight bags and similar objects. When the player reached the end, they’d fight a director droid that was responsible for the droids turning on the humans.
Voleria
Voleria was the first of a three part campaign that introduced the player to a large enemy faction called The Scorn. In it, I had done several things that were unique to the game at the time. The campaign had dynamic dropships that would drop off enemy combatants as well as the concept of power lines and batteries that the player could move around to manipulate power flow. Enemies were more advanced than my previous campaigns, forming squads and using special abilities that worked off of each other. Additionally, I attempted some unique takes on traps including a bouncing betty bomb that would explode if you got too close to it.
While most of my time spent on Star Legends was based around content development, I did help in expanding our toolset by providing feedback to the tech team. Additionally, I helped in developing the object state system that would be used in both this game and future titles.
I helped design the state system used in Star Legends in collaboration with the tech team and input from other designers. This system let us define objects that had different states, transition animations, and custom scripting hooks that could be referenced. It served as the basis for handling everything from doors to keycard switches.
Unfortunately, images are not available at this time, but I am working to locate some to include.
The Brothers of Three was a Neverwinter Nights module created in the Aurora toolset. When applying for Bioware, design candidates were required to provide an example module in this engine to illustrate their skill set. The only requirements were a boss encounter as well as the integration of cutscenes using a separate, third party plugin to demonstrate camera choreography. Cutscenes were fairly primitive given that the engine was not setup to handle them, but this separate extension helped in achieving the requirement.
This was my first exposure to Aurora and I spent 7 days non-stop learning the editor as well as the C based scripting language to produce this module. It was a really exciting learning experience and the end result was a piece of content that integrated 3 new systems including a hint based companion system, moveable object system (which the engine didn’t support), and a piece of gear that let players view into the spirit realm. I’m really pleased with how it turned out given the time constraints. Once submitted, Bioware decided to use it as the example module for future candidates that applied to work on the game.
Players were tasked with helping a High Council defeat a lord of evil known as Bethalus. With the aid of one of the Council members, Efayu, the player would navigate through a desert, into Bethalus’ temple, and finally encounter Bethalus himself in his chamber. Efayu’s magic was weakened upon arrival to the desert, so the player only has her assistance in an ethereal form that travels alongside the player.
Walkthrough Video
Chamber of the High Council
The chamber was where the intro cutscene would play out for the player, giving them some context of what was going on. This cutscene was shortened due to time limitations, however, the final form was to include the player interacting for a few lines with the Council members prior to embarking on the journey with Efayu.
Desert Outskirts
The desert outside of the temple served as an introductory area for the player. They’d get their feet wet dragging down an object and get through some basic combat. At the temple entrance, they’d have a chance to get a buff if they were willing to risk drinking the well water, as well as get some narrative of the temple’s creation in the form of writings on grave stones.
Temple - Corridors
Once inside the temple, players would work their way to Bethalus’ chamber. The players needed two pieces of gear that allowed them to unblock certain obstacles and ultimately open his chamber door. These two pieces were obtained from separate puzzle chambers.
Temple - Obelisk Chamber
The Obelisk chamber had players figuring out which items matched up with nearby obelisks, based on inscriptions at the base of each one. Unlocking this provided Dorimyn’s Gauntlets which let players lift heavier objects and bypass earlier obstacles.
cs_pent_puzzle.nss, cs_pent_door.nss, pent_trig_01.nss, pent_trig_02.nss, pent_puzzle.nss, pent_ob_trig_01.nss, pent_ob_trig_02.nss, pent_ob_trig_03.nss, pent_ob_trig_04.nss, pent_ob_trig_05.nss
Temple - Treasure Chamber
Upon entering the Treasure Chamber, players would come across a helmet that let them view the spirit world when used. After killing spirits, the exit to the chamber would be unblocked allowing further progress. This item would be used for additional puzzle mechanics in the main corridor and the final boss sequence.
corr_trig03_oe.nss, treas_wraith_od.nss, treas_trig_01.nss
Temple - Boss Chamber
Defeating Bethalus required the player to use the previous items they picked up. The guantlets would allow them to lure Bethalus out. In combat, he would continually get healed by an unknown source and be difficult to beat. If the player used their helm, they could see spirits continually healing them that could be taken out. Killing the spirits would give the player a window of opportunity to diminish his health.
boss_encounter.nss, boss_trig01_oe.nss, boss_trig02_oe.nss, boss_wraith_hb.nss, boss_wraith_od.nss, boss_wraith_os.nss, end_trigger_oe.nss
There were three systems introduced with this mod. I constructed these to be modular in the hopes that they could be used by others if needed.
Hint Companion
The hint companion was similar to the companions seen in games like Zelda. In this system, players could place tags throughout the world that had variables triggering the companion’s pre-defined help statements. Additionally, the tags could have a text override to deliver custom statements as needed.
lib_hs_main.nss, lib_hs_const.nss
Moveable Objects
The most difficult system introduced was the moveable object system. The engine does not support movement of objects in any way so I had to fake it (admittedly in a horribly inefficient way), by determining the coordinates around the player and despawning/respawning the object. Players could drag objects that were normal or heavy weight, with the latter requiring gear to be moved. The system also had concepts for objects already being dragged by others, as well as no definable areas that prevented objects from being taken out of valid locations.
lib_ds_barr_ent.nss, lib_ds_barr_exit.nss, lib_ds_const.nss, lib_ds_gen_ou.nss, lib_ds_main.nss, lib_ds_pos_funcs.nss
Spirit Helmet
The spirit helm handled 2 dimensions the player could cross between. This item was built to handle toggling on and off the visibility of creatures between these two dimensions based on how they were flagged. It would intelligently clean up any behavior in the event that combat was taking place when the helmet was turned off.
lib_sw_main.nss, lurimont_helm.nss
I came onto Darksiders near the second half of development. The title is best described as a cross between Zelda and God of War, with a dash of Devil May Cry thrown in once you unlocked the pistol. My responsibilities were to drive several of the main character’s systems to completion, including his puzzle solving gear, itemization, and abilities.
While my primary role was on systems, I also helped in supporting the level team by providing feedback to them based on my playthroughs of content. I was given the opportunity by the lead designer to help with two levels that needed additional design and implementation support.
Gryphon Flight Sequence
Much of the layout for this level was established when I was assigned to it. I was responsible for developing a spline based system with one of the programmers, hooking up the behavior of the Gryphon, establishing and hooking up the attacks that would be used, and finally, scripting and spawning the entire sequence and movement path.
The Hollows
The Hollows level was split between myself and one other designer. I helped finish the scripting and cleaned up some of the bugs that were present. I also provided additional design and further developed some of the areas adding in additional cinematics, puzzle mechanics, and integrating itemization that was required in the level.
With the help of the art and tech departments, I led the implementation and design on War’s (main character) puzzle equipment, guns, weapon enhancements and itemization. I also helped provide support for additional areas that needed design including the feel of currency acquirement (souls), physics, and camera/controls for underwater traversal.
War had several abilities that could be fired off. These abilities were able to be powered up to four times, providing more striking visuals, sound effects, and combat effects. Some of the basic ideas were established on abilities when I arrived, however, I altered these to feel more coherent with the combat system and worked to get these completed. I was responsible for art and tech coordination, hooking up assets, iterating on their feel, balance and finally polish.
Affliction
When War used Affliction two serpents would be summoned doing damage to all nearby enemies. After a one was defeated, the serpents would continue travelling to other nearby enemies.
Blade Geyser
When used, War would stab his sword into the ground, creating a field of blades that would harm any enemy within the radius.
Chaos Form
War had a Wrath meter that would fill up based on how many enemies were killed. Once filled, he could take the form of a demonic creature that had an alternate set of moves and abilities. This form only lasted for a brief period of time before War would revert to his original form.
Immolation
When War used Immolation, he would surround himself with a barrier of Hellfire. Any enemy that War touched or that attacked him would also be set afire by the Immolation’s flames. In upgraded versions of this ability, War’s movement would also leave behind a trail of fire that would catch enemies ablaze.
Stoneskin
Stoneskin was a defensive ability that when used, would cause War’s skin to turn into stone, making him capable of withstanding enormous amounts of damage for a short time. Initially, I had wanted this form to increase the player’s weight for water traversal, but development was too far along to permit this.
War’s equipment could be used both in combat to help defeat certain enemy types, as well as to overcome some of the puzzles in the environment. I was responsible for art and tech coordination, hooking up assets, iterating on feel, balance and final polish.
Abyssal Chain
The Abyssal Chain was a hook that when launched, would bring War over to it’s target. Used on both items in the distance as well as certain areas of the landscape (such as climbable surfaces), the chain proved to be an invaluable tool. While not able to defeat enemies directly, it could be used to latch onto certain ones and draw War closer to them. For some flying creatures and smaller enemies, the chain could pull them closer as well. Some larger enemies required the chain to be used on them to open up an opportunity for War to deal damage to them.
Crossblade
The Crossblade could be used to hit switches and bombs in the distance, allowing doors and other puzzles to advance. This item also allowed War to transfer elements such as fire from one source to another. As a weapon, it could be used against large groups of weak enemies to take them out in bulk.
Earthcaller
The Earthcaller’s primary function was narrative, awakening one of the giants that guarded a gate in the game. It could be used in combat to knock back certain weak enemies, even pushing them off ledges in some instances.
Mask of Shadows
The Mask permitted War to see hidden objects in the world allowing additional traversal options that were not originally apparent. These included ledges, points for his Abyssal Chain, and bridges.
Voidwalker
The Voidwalker could be used to set two portals in the world, one orange and the other blue. Once placed, War could travel through them to reach distant places. Additionally, War would solve some puzzles by having certain things travel through the portals, such as beams of reflected light.
War had three guns available to him in the game. The first, a pistol called Mercy, could be used as part of his arsenal in combat. The other two were cannons that were situational and only used in certain portions of levels, allowing them to be picked up and dropped at will. I was responsible for art and tech coordination, hooking up assets, iterating on feel, balance and finally polish.
Mercy
Mercy was a pistol that once acquired could be used both on land and while riding War’s mount, Ruin. This pistol was effective at dealing shots in excess depending on how quickly you pulled the trigger. With skill, players could jump and keep afloat while shooting at nearby enemies helping War perform additional combos.
Fracture Cannon
Fracture was one of the cannons War came across during his travels. When used, War walked considerably slower than normal. It was loaded with four shots at a time that would automatically replenish after use. Additionally, it could launch a bolt that would explode when triggered by the player or after a set amount of time, whichever occurred first.
Redemption Cannon
Similar to the Fracture Cannon, Redemption was another large gun that War would come across. Players could rapid fire the weapon by tapping the trigger button or hold it down for charged attacks.
Weapon Enhancements were a general idea in the game at the time I joined, however, they required additional design to be completed. These passive enhancements could be slotted into particular weapons to improve their overall effect. I was responsible for fleshing out their behavior and names as well as determining the locations that they would need to be sourced for War to pick up.
There were a base set of normal weapon enhancements that War could obtain. These included the following:
 | Bane | Generated Wrath over time (to help the player assume the Chaos Form more easily). |
 | Bloodthirst | Healed War by stealing the life of adversaries during combat. |
 | Carnage | Filled War with hatred and generated Chaos at an accelerated rate. |
 | Combat Lore | Increased the rate of weapon experience gathered, and boosted War's armor level. |
 | Hellfire | Instilled a melee weapon with the element of fire. |
 | Ravager | Increased War's damage with environmental weapon attacks. |
 | Reaper | Boosted the harvest of souls from slain enemies. |
 | Weapon Master | Bestowed an increased knowledge of weaponry by boosting weapon damage. |
In addition to the normal enhancements, there were four legendary enhancements that were themed around the four horseman the game’s story was built upon. The enhancements included:
 | Death's Blessing | Dramatically boosted Wrath generation and revealed the location of all items on the current map. |
 | Fury's Embrace | Leached weapon damage and converted it to Health. Increased the amount of souls reaped. |
 | Strife's Offering | Greatly increased War's effectiveness in ranged combat. |
 | War's Glory | Increased Chaos gained and the duration of War's Chaos Form. |
Additional work I provided on the game included support for overall “feel” and “usability” in certain areas:
Tabula Rasa was the first game that I worked on. Initially designed as an anime-fantasy massively multiplayer online game, I was hired on as a game designer focusing on content. Midway through development, the game was re-imagined as an sci-fi action title based on feedback.
I eventually became in charge of much of the prototyping and implementation of core features as we came out of the reboot, helping with content structure, vertical slicing of content systems and tools, and eventually the overall user experience and UI.
Tabula Rasa was broken into two types of content – persistent maps and instances. The former were large hubs that allowed a large number of players to play alongside each other while the latter were tight, group based experiences. I helped prototype the persistent map gameplay and created a several instances that made it into the final game.
Pravus Research Facility
Pravus Research Facility was the first instance that was created for the game. In it, players were tasked with helping the planet’s natives by destroying a nearby facility responsible for turning their kin into cyborgs used by the enemy faction. The map was based largely around trench warfare that eventually had players infiltrating the facility itself. Along the way, side missions that influenced reinforcements could be acquired.
Purgas Station
With a reactor core that harnessed the sun’s energy, Purgas Station served as a source of power for much of the enemy faction’s units. Players were tasked with locating a missing reconnaissance unit that was sent in previously, and finish the job for them. Players would make their way deeper into the facility taking down high-ranking enemy officers, re-establishing communications and eventually over powering the reactor to destroy it.
Maligo Base
Home to a prototype wormhole device, Maligo Base served as a secret weapons facility in the heart of the planet’s forest. Players would need to work their way past enemy forces and locate the device. Along the way, they would discover more details about the research as well as prisoners that could be rescued before finally destroying the device with explosives.
The game was divided into several persistent maps, but the first done was Concordia Divide. This map was initially done as a vertical slice to help illustrate some of the key concepts in the game’s reboot, including how combat and trench ebb and flow would work. Additionally, concepts were fleshed out on how allies received reinforcements, enemies spawned, and finally, how the overall presentation and choreography of the ongoing “battlefield” would be presented. I scripting and blocked out much of this zone during it’s initial stages before it was revised in it’s final form for additional content changes and polish.
Concordia Divide
Much of the system work I led was centered around content development. I worked with the tech and art departments to establish tool improvements as well as get new systems online that would make content creation quicker and more polished for the player.
The Usable State System (USS) was a content creation pipeline that let designers create fully contained objects, with their own visual effects, sound effects, animations, and script hooks. This system formed the basis for how we would handle everything from dropships that spawned enemies to puzzle objects that would power doors (such as access systems, power, keycodes, etc.).
Several of our key creatures required design assistance to get their behavior online. I worked with the art and tech departments to bring the following creatures to completion.
Juggernaut
A large bipedal creature, the Juggernaut had a series of short ranged attacks to combat melee players with. Additionally, the creature had a chance to fire off a barrage of missiles that would impact players both near and far.
Predator
Predators served as a scouting unit for the enemy faction, attacking with short range lasers and attempting to keep their distance in order to avoid incoming enemy fire.
Sentinel
Mainly a reconnaissance unit, Sentinels had the capability of not only evading enemy fire, but also calling in reinforcements that would arrive in dropships.
Stalker
One of the signature creatures in the game, Stalkers were massive tripedal machines that would scour the battlefield for enemy players. In addition to powering a large fixed frontal gun, Stalkers could power up a large plasma bomb that would drop on the battlefield, causing massive damage to the area and those in it’s path. Their spawn in behavior had them flying in similar to “War of the Worlds”, striking the ground and standing upright before engaging in battle.
Bane Cannon
Fixed position cannons, these machines would dish out heavy amounts of firepower at unsuspecting players. Their key immunity came in the form of any EMP based incoming attack.
Tesla Coil
The Tesla Coil was a stationary structure. While weak and easy to destroy, the coils had the capability of charging up and electrifying nearby players with a high damage arc of energy.
Control Points were the largest scripted system in the game. These large bases could alternate control between both allied and enemy forces. Their locations were identified on the map which gave indication as to which faction owned it.
While in the possession of the player’s faction, they would serve as a teleportation site, offer commerce and dispense and complete quests. Eventually, they would be attacked by the enemy faction, requiring the player to fend off waves of enemy dropships, with troops working their way into the base.
Possession of control points was centered around a control point “flag” which was an an obelisk like structure. I was responsible for the logic, tech coordination and scripting of these bases as well as blocking out and establishing their overall layout.
They had to be constructed in a modular fashion so that our designers could place dozens of these quickly throughout the world without having to alter anything other than base properties on objects.
A three person team consisting of myself, a UI programmer, and UI artist were assigned to help design and implement all the interface needs for the game. I was responsible for the overall design and high level wire frames for the UI. The UI artist would refine these further and establish the aesthetic for it. Finally, the UI programmer would work with us both to bring it to fruition.
Our combat was simple to understand at it’s core, but required a unique take on how to control it. We focused on making it easy to handle the basic movement and combat actions, while letting you cycle your abilities and weapon loadouts as needed.
The HUD needed to provide all the necessary information while being as transparent as possible to the player. This proved to be a challenge but our UI Artist really did an excellent job with making it all come together while still keeping the information easy to digest.
Targeting Reticles
One of the most challenging aspects of the HUD were the reticles for our gun play. We had to provide information on range, ammunition amount and faction association, while still keeping the aesthetic of the game and not overwhelming the player.
Weapons & Ability Tray
The weapons tray allowed the player to cycle forward/back both the weapons being used as well as the abilities the players had active.
Minimap
The minimap provided the information of nearby points of interest and allowed the player to filter this information depending on their preferences.
Attribute Bar
The Attribute Bar provided information on the player’s health, power, adrenaline (which resulted in kill streak bonuses), buffs and debuffs, and finally their level and “in-combat” status.
Our icons were largely developed externally by a contractor. I was responsible for driving the direction of the icons that were used in the UI itself while also providing information and intent on how the icons would be used. Finally, I would hook up icons after reviewing them with the art team.
Outside of the HUD, the game required a large number of windows to allow the player to manipulate and view the data available on their character.
Character Creation
Character Creation allowed the player to modify base characteristics using a predefined set of templates for each category (head, hair, torso, etc.). Additionally, color values were modifiable using a built in color wheel.
Mission Accept Window
The Mission Accept window provided a fictional blurb on the mission the player was accepting, as well as the rewards granted upon completion.
Radial Menu
The Radial Menu was a different take on how the player could access windows. I didn’t want the player to have to move their cursor very far since the game was fast paced and didn’t provide a mouse cursor by default. Instead, I opted to have the player hold down their control key and have the mouse available at the center of the screen, allowing them to quickly go to a window or it’s associated tabs.
Character Window
The Character Window provided key stats and equipped items that were on the player. Additionally, the player could see more detailed information in the form of resistances and their derived stats.
Inventory Window
The Inventory Window was grid based, allowing dragging and dropping. However, the player could expand it for a larger view. Additionally, the inventory allowed filtering which was unique at the time for an MMO.
Vendor Window
The Vendor Window provided a way for players to purchase and sell goods either individually or in bulk. Recently sold items could be viewed again to re-purchase back and items could be repaired if damaged.
Mission Window
Mission information was contained within the Mission Window, providing key objective information and their status, as well as allowing tracking to be toggled on or off by the player. Players could also see if group mates had the mission as well.
Logos Tablet Window
Logos was the unique language in our game. Players would discover Logos runes throughout the world that mapped one to one with an English equivalent word. The Tablet provided a way for players to view the vocabulary at large and see which of these runes they had unlocked.
Looking for Squad Window
Players wishing to group with others could take advantage of the Looking for Squad Window. This system gave players a way to post advertisements and group up with others based on the information they provided. Others could then search out players using similar criteria and be paired up automatically.
Map Window
The Map Window was the most complex window to get online. It required navigation of all zone maps as well as an extensive filtering system that called out key points on any map the player wished to view. Additionally, maps needed to be generated in a style that fit the theme of the rest of the game.
Waypoint Window
The Waypoint Window was a subset of the map window, providing players a means of traveling between different points on the map they were on.
Zone Loading Screen
Our Loading Screens provided fictional information on the map the player was about to travel to, while showcasing some of the key areas of the map in the form of captured screens.
Help Window
The Help Window provided information on the systems players would be exposed to. Each help file supported embedded images and informational call outs as needed.
Options Window
The Options window provided detailed settings for Video, Audio, and the Game itself. Keybindings could also be remapped in full through this window.
