Postmortem
DreamWillow is the first release by the student / graduate game development club WolverineSoft Studio. The game is a top-down twin-stick shooter where you play as a necromancer who is freeing a forest of cursed creatures. During development my role was as a lead technical designer in charge of the Player and Level Design. This role included general scripting needed for bug fixing / maintenance, as well as designing, testing, and balancing of all features related to the Player, Levels, and the game loop.
This is the breakdown for the respective tasks that were required for designing the Player and Levels:
PLAYER
Controller
This includes player feeling and movement
Combat mechanics
This includes creating and balancing the player’s primary and secondary attack, as well as how we want combat to feel during gameplay.
Progression
This ended up primarily being figuring out the items that are purchasable within the shop. This wound up being player health, companion, and secondary attack upgrades.
Guidance / Feedback
This included determining what needs to be taught in the tutorial, on hit indicators, a secondary attack cooldown meter, controller vibration, audio feedback, button prompts, etc…
Player assistance
LEVEL DESIGN
Creating levels
Balancing enemies
Level flow
Game loop