Team: Eleanor Erceg - Designer, Liam Pickering - Designer, Andrew Gunn - Artist, Andrew Jonas - Programmer, Elvis Emuria - Artist, Jeremy Kyle - Artist

Tools: Unity, Perforce, Trello, Audacity

My Tasks: Mechanics Design, Art Direction, Sound Design, Level Layouts/Design, Greyboxing, Level Building, Narrative Design, Setting AI Paths, Scheduling, Programming (minor), Testing

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This project was co-designed with one other design student, the idea starting simply as a reverse zombie game, where the player is a zombie trying to amass a horde to wipe out/convert all the humans. Design tasks were fairly evenly shared between us, both contributing to each area significantly from concept to production. Unfortunately this game suffered some troubled development, necessitating a rebuild of the project early on and re-work of the systems, but we managed to deliver a complete playable experience in the end.

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Design Structure

1. Design to perspective

2. Find core focus

3. Iterate within scope

The game took inspiration from the 2019 indie title 'Ape Out', with its minimalist aesthetic and top down perspective. So the art style was kept low poly, with a simple palette of solid colours on untextured models. This was used to create a very clear visual distinction between zombies and humans (particularly considering how much could be seen of them from above), with high contrasting skin tones, and a bright red jacket to make the player character stand out from the background.

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The concept evolved into more of a strategy game with a stealth focus. Guards would be idle or patrolling the level, forcing the player to pick them off strategically in order to grow their numbers, then order their zombie minions to attack when the time is right. Due to various limiting factors, of time and programming issues, the original concept was scaled back, simplifying the AI system and cutting enemy variations. Zombie AI was made a simple toggle between idle and aggressive, triggered by the player character roaring. Guards, originally meant to have a passive and active state where they would either patrol a set area or hunt the player once spotted, would instead follow the player for a certain time before returning to their previous state, as testing revealed that to feel more fair.

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Narrative Design

1. Contextualise mechanics

2. Adapt to design needs

The game is set in a secret laboratory that had a critical power failure, releasing the player character from a containment cell. This narrative premise was also the justification for using chest mounted torches on all the guards to indicate their vision cones. The Michael Jackson 'Thriller' theming emerged after initial concepting, as the red suit inspired the distinct look for the player character. As this was established the player walk cycle was changed to incorporate part of the thriller dance moves, further setting the character apart from the standard zombies.

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The final change to the game happened towards the end of development, as I implemented a locked door that required a key, as a way to force the player to navigate through all areas to search the lab.

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