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Concept
My Role
The Team
Current Plans
After my prototype game Potion Seller was cut, I found a place on a game called Snowball Showdown. Snowball Showdown is the most intense, over-the-top snowball fight that players will ever experience. It is a VR game that emphasizes the playful nature of a snowball fight and mimics it in the virtual space, but it adds a new twist. All those rules stopping you from putting rocks and ice in your snowball? Gone. Anything is fair game, and we make sure you have the tools to do that. You will be able to put all kinds of ridiculous (and dangerous!) objects inside your snowballs to defeat your rival and build the ultimate snow fort. The game is fast-paced and comical, with easy-to-pick-up gameplay that rewards skill and clever play.
I joined the team as a Systems Designer. There was still a lot of thinking and planning to do on this game, and I felt like my skills would come in handy. The entire Fort Building system had to be built from the ground up, making snowballs needed to be revisited, and various other things needed to get the game ready for networked play. I was also going to take charge of QA, since this game had reached a point where it was ready to have a game loop tested. However, even though there was a lot to do, we mostly focused on onboarding the new members, myself and four other people. Speaking of other people…
The team has 10 people in it. There are 4 Designers, 3 Programmers, 2 Producers, and 1 Artist. The people are:
Myself – new Designer (Systems)
Wes Weitzman – Lead Designer
Joe Siehl – Designer (Technical)
Aiden O’Connor – new Designer (Sound/UI)
Kelly Herstine – new Programmer
Matt Aquino – Programmer
Nat Walker – Programmer
Chris McCammon – Producer
Max Blake – new Producer
Makayla Montes – new Artist
This week I’m focused on getting brought up to speed with the game. I worked some on the fort building system, but there are still some unanswered questions that need to be addressed before I go further. I also brought out game to QA, where we had 10 testers try it out for the first time. Overall good reactions. Next week we’re going to have a lot of Designer meetings to make sure everything is ready to hand off to the programmers and artist. This way we can start to focus less on the big picture and more on balance and game feel!
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