HardDriverz

Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Platform: PC

Development Time: 10 Weeks

Team Size: 54

Role: Level Designer

Summary: A retro-futuristic kart racer where the player races to the finish in 6 different tracks. Along the way the player utilizes the customizable characters and karts to improve their placing.

My Role

  • Developed an arcade racing game as a member of a 50-person studio.

  • Worked as a Level Designer apart of a 6 person team.

  • Collaborated with artists and programmers to ensure quality of design was fulfilled.

  • Communicated my teams progress on the level with leads and stakeholders.

Level Design

Disc Track

Disc Track as the first level in the game serves as the introduction to the various driving mechanics. Overall, the track is very straight forward and easy to navigate.

My Part of the Track

I was responsible for the beginning of the track before the first island. My focus was on:

  • Designing interesting straight aways

  • Effectively communicating turns

Mirror Mode

Post Mortem

I was also responsible for setting up the mirrored tracks for the game.

  • I set up the sublevel structure for each of the mirrored track.

  • Implemented additional obstacles on the tracks to vary gameplay.

Design Goals

The first design goal for the track was to allow karts with higher acceleration to have more success. This was accomplished through:

  • Straight Aways

  • Obstacles

  • Wide Turns

Design Goals

The second Design Goal was to foreshadow changes in direction to the player. This was accomplished through:

  • Turns with positive camber

  • Signs

  • Obstacles

  • I was able to communicate effectively across multiple disciplines.

  • Effectively reviewed and implemented feedback from playtesters and leads.

  • Consistantly relayed the progress of my team to leads.

What Went Well

What Went Wrong

  • My team did not effectively communicate changes to their design.

  • There was not enough playtesting early on in the development process.

  • Core Pillars of the game were not implemented until Beta.

What I Learned

  • The importance of finding a way to communicate across disciplines.

  • Effectively communicating the reasons why mechanics or assets are being cut is extremely important.