Steve Ladson
Level Designer
Steve Ladson - Full Sail University Project
dESIGN INTENT
The Orange project was a university project, with premise guidelines for a game jam concept centered around the theme “Everything Fall apart". The task was to design and prototype a game conducive to quick playtesting and iteration within a four-week timeframe. In addition, given four distinct objects: an orange, a tire, a sock, and a rope, the challenge was to introduce a novel perspective on mechanics and their interactions.
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Although the goal was to create an enjoyable game, the overall objective of this project was to stimulate and enhance the experience and understanding of being able to design swiftly in a real-world industry setting. All the while documenting, analyzing, and iterating changes based on visual playtesting and observation. It is worth noting that for the purposes of evaluation, the emphasis was not heavily placed on the design and functionality of the project.
Ai & mechanics
Player character
Mechanic
implementation
Orange: Throw - the player uses oranges as defense projectile weapon against enemy vandals.
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Sock: Melee attack - the player, when equipped can use sock as close-range melee weapon with 1-3 orange availability.
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Tire: Repair - a dynamic removable asset mesh that can be repaired and attach to the vehicles by the player and removed and dethatched from the vehicle by the enemy vandals.
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Rope: Ability - while equipped allows the player to carry multiple tires at once.
Role & contribution
Aside from the choice of theme and uniqueness of mechanic-elements, everything from game premise and design idea and development was all up to me to create, design, implement and develop.
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Game Overview: The player works late nights, as a mechanic on high end expensive cars. Throughout the night the player is challenged by spawning waves of enemy vandals attempting to steal the tires and rims off the vehicles.​
Project reflection
This project was my first project, where I had to create and design everything on my own from design idea premise to all implementation of features and mechanics. I quickly came to the realization that ideas do not come as easy when pressure is applied; and the title shows a perfect example. This project helped me to understand time management and attention to detail plays a huge role in the design process. I spent so much time trying to set up the look and feel of the level that I ignored the fact of needing to quickly have a play-testable game.