Dual Shadows
Dual Shadows is a third-person, action combat game developed in Unreal Engine 5. It sees Linh, a weapon of the cooperation Harmoni, fight her way through the city to defeat the mythical beasts. While working on Dual Shadows, I primarily designed levels and enemy encounters.
Production
Project Work Summary
While working on Dual Shadows, I worked on level design. I created level layouts for the tutorial and the boss arenas. For one of the levels I didn't create the layout for, the second district, I undertook encounter design.
Project Summary
An ancient magic has escaped containment and is being spread across the city. Navigate the two districts, confront the corrupted, and uncover the source of this ancient magic.
With dynamic gameplay that fuses melee and ranged combat, you'll unlock new skills and abilities, and fight various bosses, encouraging strategy as you fight to clear your name and restore balance to the city.
Role
Team Interactions
As the primary level designer on Dual Shadows, I acted as a bridge between the level design process and the art and programming disciplines.
When working on level design, asset implementation became a pivotal aspect of my workflow. I collaborated closely with artists to ensure the visual direction of their assets aligned with intended player experience.
When working on encounter design, I collaborated closely with programmers to resolve enemy pathing issues and improve overall functionality.
Contributed Work
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Level Design Process
When it came to designing/iterating a level layout for Dual Shadows, my process could be broken down into seven steps:
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Identify what elements the level needed to include, in order to align the game's experience with the core gameplay pillars
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Draft concept sketches of the level with these considerations in mind
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Create a level graybox in engine based on the level sketch
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Implement enemy encounters throughout the level graybox
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Test to see if the level prototype successfully aligns the game's experience with the core gameplay pillars. Continue iterating and testing until it does.
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Collaborate with artists to integrate art assets into the level
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Communicate with the physics programmer to implement destructible objects.
Encounter Design Methodology
When designing and implementing enemy encounters for Dual Shadows, my methodology focused on ensuring that encounters encouraged players to engage in both ranged and melee combat.
To incentivize melee combat, I designed encounters with small, tightly grouped melee enemies to avoid overwhelming the player. These groups were placed in narrow alleyways, limiting evasion tactics and encouraging a more direct, aggressive approach.
To incentivize ranged combat, I designed larger, dispersed groups of ranged enemies in wide streets and intersections, encouraging traversal and precise aiming.
Post Mortem
Closing Thoughts
Working on Dual Shadows taught me the importance of clearly communicating both the intended player experience and project expectations.
While working on Dual Shadows, unclear direction regarding the intended player experience made it difficult to design levels that properly supported the gameplay. The project regularly switched between being a full game and a mechanic demo, further complicating scoping and prioritization of work.
After completing the project, I clearly see how critical communication is in larger team projects. Understanding each team member's workload and perspective allows the game to deliver a more cohesive experience.
Team Mega Cheeky
Producer: Darin Hinze
Product Owner, Combat Designer & Animator: Allen Rocke
Design Lead, UI/UX & Narrative Designer: Andrew Lounsbury
Systems Designer: William Badger
Level Designer: Liam Dunphy
Game Designer: Tucker Wolfson
Art Lead, Environment Artist: Tu Nguyen
Animator, Rigger: Samuel Feiner
Vehicle Artist: Carl Nelson
2D Artist: Daren Phon
Sound Lead: Nicholas Stratton
Programming Lead, Physics Programmer & Repo Master: Jake Baranowski
Systems Programmer: Michael Kirkpatrick
Level Design Contractor: Dennis Baboomian
Narrative Design Contractor: Arija Hartel
Environment Art Contractor: Jason Richter
Character Art Contractors: Kimmy Madera, Breanna Diodati