Role: Technical Designer
Genre: Puzzle / Platformer / Cooperative
Development Time: 6 Months
Team Size: 9
Engine: Unity
Play now with two players on Mac or Windows
The Robot Split in Time is a cooperative puzzle platformer where two robots, split across time, must work together to solve puzzles across the boundaries of their own time! Players must coordinate and time their ‘swap’ mechanic which allows them to swap through time! Using this mechanic, the players will overcome a variety of levels filled with unique puzzles and platforming scenarios.
An early prototype of this game received the Audience Choice award at the annual MSU GameDev Student Showcase.
The game was also showcased at DemoCamp Lansing and the Intel University Games Expo at GDC.
Responsibilities:
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Design and implementation of many features
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Cleaning and debugging code
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Player animator and animation states
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Refining player experience
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Level iteration and design
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Managing scrum meetings and sprint burndowns
Player Experience
Polishing the player experience was a big focus of mine towards the end of the project. I worked hard to make the character feel good to control and move. I also iterated over level designs to make sure the player wasn't going to get confused or frustrated with the game.
Many things went into smoothing the player's experience including adding a spotlight to the players in darker levels, framing puzzle pieces to keep all necessary information in sight, and making mechanics intuitive and easy to work with.
Animation States
One of my jobs on this project was to hook up all the player animations in code and make sure they transitioned smoothly. I collaborated very closely with our animator to hook up different animation states and have the transitions between them look smooth and natural.
I was also responsible coding the end level sequence that involved two seperate fist bump animations.
I was scrum master during The Robot Split in Time's development. I was in charge of delegating tasks and planning out sprints. I managed a burndown chart to make sure the team was en route to meet our sprint deadlines.
A large portion of my time was communicating with the team on what could and couldn't be done in the time we had. I also ran scrum meetings to keep track of progress throughout each sprint.
Scrum Management
