Three Big "Hats".

Project Lead. Led a team as big as 12 students and worked through multiple scope cuts.

Game Designer. From the arena level and game systems to the narrative design, I did it all.

Programmer. Collaborated with others and created the bulk of the game's code.

Project Lead

Team Leading

• Led a team of 10-12 students throughout the project's production.

• Interviewed most members prior to inviting them into the team, and handled unexpected member departures.

• Spoke with team collectively at weekly team meetings, and individually every so often to discuss further details.

• Setup a Discord server as the team's primary means of communication.

• Ensured there was proper communication between at least me and the team, and accounted for peoples' responsibilities outside of the project.

Task Management

• Setup and managed Trello board, including all tasks and instructions, for all members of the team.

• Established a simple to understand layout and setup automation for ease of use (e.g. countdown and due dates).

• Ensured there were links to all important documents like the GDD, people's contact information, and more.

• Arranged a Gantt chart in Excel Sheets for all of the project's tasks.

• Adjusted the project's goals, tasks, and resources (i.e. Gantt chart and Trello board) when the project underwent three scope cuts, among other unforeseen circumstances.

Game Design

Systems Design

Multiplayer in Mind.

• Monster-Bound's mechanics were designed to accommodate not just Single-player gameplay but also Multiplayer.

• In Multiplayer mode you have: multiple targets for enemies, multiple outputs of damage, and the ability to revive downed allies for free.

• In Single-player mode you have: less enemies, all points from defeated enemies goes to you, and you start with two free self-revives.

• A big concept of Monster-Bound was to have every weapon be viable, at least at some point of the game. No weapon should feel "useless".

• I designed all 8 weapons, making the ones that were on average most effective to cost the most upfront.

• Melee weapons cost a lot and are riskier to use, but are more cost-efficient as you never need to spend additional points for ammunition.

• Players can upgrade weapons by spending points at the Upgrade Altar.

• The least effective weapons had the largest scaling factor when upgrading, making them deadlier than most weapons if enough points are spent on upgrading them.

Every Weapon is Viable.

Growing Opposition.

• The game's core and main threat are its hordes of enemies.

• Enemies start off weak and few in quantity, but as the game progresses through waves, the quantity of enemies, their health and their speed, all steadily increase.

• By Wave 50, enemies move faster than players.

• To compensate for this, players will gain Experience and unlock Abilities to help them survive.

• Players will have to manage their points, choosing when to unlock locked parts of the map (if at all), when and what weapons to buy, and more.

• Players must survive by the end of Wave 50 to "win".

Level Design

Designed for Spectators.

• I designed the "Crucible" map from block-out to final draft.

• I first brainstormed how the map would look and function, given the game's mechanics and lore; decided on a colosseum brimming with various elements (e.g. caves, forest, acid, lava).

• Initially the level was gonna be split into four sections, with each section depicting one of the four Patrons (player "classes").

• Later decided to instead have it be split into two halves: one more forested & one more cavernous. This was to better fit the 1-2 Patrons we would have, and limit the number of different assets needed for the level.

• I drew out the first few paper drafts for the level, better defined certain elements over time, and then began to block it out to get a better idea of the sizing and spacing of things.

Improvised & Adapted.

• Just shy of midway into the game's development, scope cuts were made and I found it better to stick with just the forested side of the map.

• Initial envisioned cavernous side would be blocked off.

• I blocked the level out, progressively brought the assets into the engine, better defined assets and spacing, and then worked on the lighting and skybox.

• I then play-tested the game trying to exploit the level and get out of bounds, making the proper adjustments to things when I found them.

Project Credits

• UI Assets by Mylan Nguyen

• Concept Art (Patron, Upgrade Altar, & Enemy) by Conrado Iacono

• Concept Art (Player, Supply Slab, & Workhorse Gun) by Piero Degregori

• Modeling (Rocks, Upgrade Altar, Crystals, Ceremonial Pyre, Supply Slab, Bridge, & Shotgun) by Jessie Leung

• Modeling (Tree, Workhorse Gun, Crowd Stands, & Shrine) by Gabriel Barrueco Pires

• Modeling (Player, Enemy, Hammer) by Ahron Calizto

• All Character Rigs & Animations, Barrier VFX, & Athame by Steve Gomes

• Programming (Skill Tree & Abilities) by Zhikang Chen

• Programming (Enemy AI) by Giuliano Venturo Gonzales

• Player Skill Tree Assistance by Giacomo Ponzi