Game Designer

System Designer

Level Designer & Builder

Ping Awards

Best Student Game 2015

PROJECT

Team : School Project

Genre : Action-Adventure

Platform : PC

Engine : Unity

Release : 30/06/2015

Twin Fates is a cooperative Action-Adventure game for 2 players only.

The two main characters, a boy and a wolf, are bound together by a physical link, that limits them, but also gives them new abilities.

The link is at the core of the gameplay, both players control it indirectly through their movement and actions. Using coordination and timing, they are able to unleash the full potential of the link and use it as a unique tool or weapon to overcome challenges.

TASKS

GAME DESIGN

Worked on designing the core gameplay and defining the solo & duo actions available to the players
Designed the cooperative aspects of the gameplay and the learning curve
Designed and tweaked the special GPE and their behaviour (like the sticky fruit in the video)
Organized and followed the playtests sessions
Wrote the Game Design Document & Game Feature documents

SYSTEM DESIGN

Tweaked the characters particularities (gameplay is asymmetric, both have different abilities and stats)
Developed the multiple camera systems and designed their tools (follow, pivot, barycentric etc.)
Designed the combat system :
- Worked with the programmer to set up the fighting system and enemy behaviour & patterns
- Worked with the animator to create the animations, signs & feedbacks

LEVEL DESIGN & BUILDING

Built the gym room, which allowed us to setup the core challenges we wanted for the game
Designed the basic layout of the levels
Built it in Unity using ProCore (a BSP-like tool)
Placed and tweaked the cameras to allow for both visibility and immersion
Polished it to make sure the challenge was progressive and everything was understandable

TEAM

Game Designer

Steven Slater

Animator

Charly Bonhomme

Programmer

Jérôme Bretheau

Environment Artist

Fiona Bosquet

Character Artist

Marie-Adeline

Rohard

Project Manager

Maxime Antonoff

Twin Fates was our final year's project at SUPINFOGAME, RUBIKA.

Here are the people I've developed it with.

MORE ABOUT THE GAME

CORE GAMEPLAY

When I joined the team, the initial concept was already layed out. I worked on the refining of the gameplay mechanics and system. Defining precisely the actions available to the characters and the interactions made possible by the link.

We designed actions that could be used for platforming, fighting and puzzle purposes.

Here are a few examples.

Boulder Coop Gameplay Concept Art for Twin Fates

Climbing Coop Gameplay Concept Art for Twin Fates

The two characters can use the link to climb together using their own specific abilities.

The link can be used to move around heavy objects.

Jumping Coop Gameplay Concept Art for Twin Fates

The link can be used as a Zipline to access to otherwise inaccessible areas.

Slingshot Coop Gameplay Concept Art for Twin Fates

By strenghting the link, they can repel enemies arriving at fast speed to use as projectiles.

Dash Coop Gameplay Concept Art for Twin Fates

The link can be used to cut enemies or key gameplay elements.

COOPERATIVE GAMEPLAY

Our main goal was to make the link the core cooperative element for the two players.

Once the abilities offered by the link were designed, we had to make sure the players would actually need it, or better, would want to use it regularly; but at the same time, we didn't want the link to be a gimmicky solution-to-all tool they would be required to use at every single occasion. We wanted balance.

So we made two decisions :

Firstly, an asymmetric gameplay. Even if both characters are able to solve most challenges on their own, they have specialties (climbing vs jumping, close combat vs distance combat etc.) that make it very unefficient to try to do everything with either one of the two characters only. The link then became a tool to overcome each characters weaknesses and to progress together.

Secondly, multi-purpose link abilities. With a simple set of basic actions, they could coordinate to trigger the link abilities which could all be used in different context : platforming, combat or puzzle-solving. It was then up to the players to experiment with these abilities in order to come up with solutions to the game's challenges.

This is the Gym Room we used to tweak the characters stats & abilities, in order to define the main challenges type and difficulty

LEVEL BUILDING

Drawing from the Zelda-series, we divided our workshops in categories : Platforming & Climbing workshops ; Puzzle workshops ; Combat workshops etc. To develop each of these types, I've based scale and positioning calculations on the work produced on the 3C in our Gym.

I worked closely with the environment artist in order to develop levels that "feel" natural & are interesting to look at.

Indeed, the feeling of each level must make the players yearn for exploration, so the design, topology and circulatory should mix game design constraints as well as aesthetics ones.

Furthermore, the flow and rhythm of the game, in Twin Fates, are highly determined by the environment, by what the players see at any moment, hence the "interesting to look at" as we are trying to regularly give the players a good view of the world around them, hints about where to go next or what secrets lies waiting.

Here are concept art that illustrate one of the main areas of the game, giving a sense of verticality as well as identifying the place took by the main elements of the topology of the level : the giant tree in the center, surrounded by two moutains (which are part of the level too).