Dev Blog 1

Hello everyone!

My name is Leland Levassar and I am the lead designer of Steel Specter. Steel Specter is a fast-paced boomer shooter where you play as a sentient computer virus that can hack and possess enemy bodies. You will have the option of occupying 3 different types of bodies, light, medium, and heavy, each with its own set of weapons, health, and abilities. The light body is fast and agile, with a shotgun and a quick burst energy shield. The medium body is meant for combat against multiple enemies with its assault rifle and shoulder mounted explosive shotgun. Lastly, the heavy body is slow, but well armored and meant for exerting single target pressure with a minigun and shoulder mounted railgun. I manage a team of 10 team members alongside my producer Daniel Lee. 

Production started off as well as it could have given the short amount of time we had to make pre-production documents. Luckily, I had some basic ideas jotted down before school started from when I originally came up with the gameplay. My experience in designing maps for TF2 in middle school and playing fast paced shooters like Ultrakill and Doom gave me a leg up in knowing what makes a satisfying first person shooter experience. However, organizing this information and creating a GDD and an asset list in such a short time was difficult. It really made me realize how essential pre-production work can be. I had the gameplay loop and core features already mapped out by the time I pitched the idea to the class. The hacking mechanics, the timing of the hacking, the three body types present in the game, the weapons and abilities each body would innately have, as well as the overall style I wanted for the game. My main focus was to make the combat and movement as clean as possible while making sure the hacking feature was fun as this was the hook of the game. This preparation included pre-calculated hacking times, health values, damage values, and walking speeds that were included in my original GDD which made sure the programmers hit the ground running when it came to making the prototypes.

 I was able to complete some basic sketches for concept art but was not able to finish in time. 

I’d say the weakest part of my pre-production was the art side, which is ironic considering my modeling background. I had focused so much on the programming side since I was scared the hacking feature would be too complex to program and finalize in 2 sprints. I didn’t have enough modeling cards and concept art for the 3 mechanical body types or the environment to keep the modelers occupied for the initial production while the 2D artist worked on concepts. Fortunately, this was rectified as the sprint went on and on top of that I finished the UI/UX wireframe so we can have a blueprint for UI work later.

Overall, we are working towards completing our movement and hacking prototype to begin testing before Sprint 2 ends. We also have multiple props completed and have begun work on the light body and the in-game weapons. A blockout of the tutorial level has also been completed meaning production on modular environment pieces can start soon. 

This sprint has been both enlightening and terrifying for me. I have never led a project close to this scale before and as Lead Designer I have a lot of pressure and expectations placed on me by my team members, and my professors. I really don’t want to screw things up for my team because I want them all to go on to have long and prosperous careers. Part of me misses being a lowly modeler but another part of me is incredibly excited to see this vision of mine come to life. This truly is what I want to do with my life and even though the task is daunting, I always use struggle and failure as a learning opportunity.