Deadeye Gold: Designer Blog: 4

Howdy Everybody!

This is Cameron Smith, Game Designer on Deadeye Desperado.  

I'm going to preface this blog by saying that we have been dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic, as well as having Spring Break in the middle of all of it. We have been working diligently to keep the game coming along, but our campus has been closed for the remainder of the semester. As such, we will be continuing development remotely. Even so, I'm sure our fantastic team can pull this project together, and end with something we're all happy with.

2D

Starting off with 2D I had to make a difficult design decision regarding the yellow, or combustion bullet. We decided that it was confusing when compared to the red Blast Bullet, and therefore we had to change it to something more readable. I wanted to keep the DoT effect, but had to come up with a new format, and a new active effect as a result. We landed on an Orange Corrosive bullet, and below you can see the symbol that has been drawn up for it, along with a new backplate that will rest behind all of the runes.

In addition we focused a bit on a new main menu screen, which i think is turning out amazing so far, and with much higher detail than our previous one.

3D

Moving on to 3D we have a new and improved model for our player's pistol ready to be shown off. This one more closely resembles our concept art for the weapon.

Now this guy feels Powerful.

Moving on, we also had some progress on the main hub chamber that will connect the six areas we have planned. Along with this came a decision about monster closets, or places where enemies spawn. We discussed several formats including portals and caves, but came to an agreement on a bit more of a techy design for them. They act as sort of hydraulic tubes to transport the enemies, and have crystals to denote how many more waves the spawner has in it.

Programming

On the programming front we have our bandolier menu working! it still has to be integrated to the player's gun, but hey it's there! 

I also did a lot of work here personally making the gun feel a little better with it's ADS animations. In addition to this i added a sight to the weapon that works accurately! I'm super proud of this, and think it makes the gun feel much better to aim and fire.

LD

Lastly, Level Design pulled through on some awesome blockouts and maps for us. Starting off here with the blockout for the new heal bullet chamber, which allows the player to heal themselves and repair broken bridges. The area is stacked up, forcing the player to climb and progress through each floor. If they miss a jump, they will fall to the next layer and have to platform back up.

In addition we have a cool new map for the shock bullet area, which will showcase exactly how the player will progress through it. The core mechanic of the shock bullet being moving and rotating platforms that the player must activate by shooting them.

Overall this was a super successful sprint even given the unfortunate circumstances. Moving forward we will continue to put out awesome work, and make something we can all be happy to show off.

Until Next Time,

-Cameron Smith