Project: Paint

This game was a prototype/pre-production pitch for the senior game studio, developed from September to November 2023. I was the team's sole level designer - my teammates were...
- Matt Villa - producer
- Cam Chrin - systems/ui designer
- Bryant Koziol - narrative designer
- Sparrow Hopp - programmer
- David Silverman - programmer
- Justin Bissonette - character artist
- Eva Colabatistto - environment artist
- Khira Dwyer - animation artist

The aim of this project was to create a viable proof of concept for a game that could be developed into a shippable product, with a larger team, later on.

The game is what can be described as a "run-and-gun" platformer - players run through a 2D-sidescrolling game world (with 3D graphics) with platforms made from common urban elements, such as trash cans, dumpsters, ac boxes, and light poles. The player can also shoot paint at the terrain, giving it special effects, like bouncing the players into the air or allowing them to climb up a surface. There are also enemies called "Spots" throughout the level, which can only be defeated by coating them in painting and then jumping onto them.
The goal of this first level is to make it all the way up to a massive billboard, where the player character would vandalize it.

My individual responsibility in the project was to handle all level design matters. Since I had no experience with "Metroidvania" platformers - a 2D platformers where levels have branching paths & progression is non-linear - I had to do extensive research on the sub-genre.

The design goal for this level was to have a junction of sorts midway through, with one path leading to the goal of the level & the other to a boss fight; the player wouldn't have the paint type needed to head to the goal from the outset, so they'd have to go to the boss first, defeat it, come back to the junction, and then go the other way. Based on this outline, I took two design decisions; a, the path from the start of the level to the boss fight would be linear, to make it easier for the players to establish sense of direction upon the start of the game. And b, instead of backtracking through an area they had already played, the player would go through an entirely different section of the level - one better fit to help them understand their new skill - that would take them back to the critical junction. In other words, the level as a whole is loop-de-loop shaped.

My collaboration with my teammates differed by discipline. In the early stages of development, I constructed gymnasium levels for the programmers to test & fine-tune the mechanics of the game - this required two-way communication with them to understand the parameters of the players' movements at the time. Later, as I was planning & implementing the actual level, I had lengthy discussions with the environment artists regarding what environmental objects were being made, so that I could factor their irregular shapes into my planning sketches. On a few occasions, I even recommended some objects for specific, important purposes, such as the train tracks & clotheslines seen late in the level.

In retrospect, this game was my point of breakthrough as a game design student. A team of people I had never worked with before (and barely even knew by name) & a sub-genre of game that I had never experienced as a player - and yet, I felt like it was one of my best jobs as a level designer to date.