Designer Devlog 1

Hello! My name is Matt, and I am the designer for our game, KickBack. KickBack is a first-person shooter where the player has a gun as their left leg and a pogo stick as their right. The player will navigate an open area using a combination of their two legs to help in various platforming and combat challenges. Special linear levels will be interspersed around the world in the form of sub-levels, which are separate from the main playable space and will challenge the player on specific movement mechanics. The goal of the game is to collect all of the memory fragments, which are this game’s “moons,” like those seen in Super Mario Odyssey.

A lot of the first sprint was spent talking with the team, making a GDD, and an ALR to help the producer start making tasks for our team. Since I went into this project with little idea of how I actually wanted the game to be structured, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out the structure that I wanted this unique movement system to exist in. I already had a very solid foundation for how I wanted the gameplay and movement to feel, as I first came up with this idea while messing around in Garry’s Mod. There was an add-on I found that gave the player the ability to kick. In the settings for this mod, you could adjust how much knockback the player felt when they kicked a wall or hard surface. This number could be cranked up, meaning kicking the ground would catapult the player way into the air. I had a lot of fun attempting to cross levels without touching the ground, entering a really nice flow state that I felt could be expanded into a much larger game. My main complaint with the kick add-on was that there wasn’t much of a way to control the player while in the air. To solve this, the player will have a gun that will be multipurpose. It will damage enemies and be the main way the player interacts with the world, while also providing the player with a knockback force opposite the direction they fire in. There will be multiple different guns, each with its own knockback characteristics. For example, the double-barreled shotgun will provide the player with a double jump, while the machine gun will provide the player with a sort of glide. The player will have a limited control scheme, using WASD, Spacebar, LMB, and RMB as controls for the game, keeping things as simple as possible.

The next part of the sprint was designing the art style. It was a bit tough, as I think of myself only as a systems designer. I am not good at communicating aesthetics, and it’s really something I’m not interested in creating. I have much more fun coming up with gameplay systems and how those interact, so it was very difficult trying to also come up with the art style. I did eventually get through it, making an ALR and Pinterest board for the designers to reference. I also acted as a consultant for most of the artists, answering questions and focusing our artists on a specific style. I do wish that there had been someone else who could’ve given me feedback or helped create the style of the game, because while I’m confident our game will look good, I feel as though I could’ve used some help forming and communicating the art style to the team.

I did eventually come up with how the core loop of the game would function. Essentially, the game will be split up into two different sections—the Overworld and the Sub-levels. The Overworld will be a large expanse of cloud, interspersed with various random clutter from city life. There will be different POIs within the world, such as the Port, the Sunken City, and the Lighthouse. Each will offer its own exploration and ways to move throughout. Each POI will also have hidden memory fragments. Within each POI there will also be portals to unique sub-levels. These sub-levels will test a specific movement system, such as pogoing off walls or using a certain gun for a certain platforming section. These levels will reward the player with a memory fragment.

Overall, I’m very excited to see how this game turns out. While it might seem like we’re doing a lot, with how I’m designing the world, most everything should be modular and highly expandable. Sub-levels will be incredibly simple, composed of just cubes and ramps. Decisions like these will definitely help us cross the finish line with a polished and fun game.