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TAMARELLE-WEBER ALEXANDRE
Game Designer
Shopping Rush
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Role: Game designer assistant, UI designer, programmation
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Team size : 4
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State: finish
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Duration: October 2022 - May 2023
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Genre: Racing, Humor
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Engine: Unreal Ungine 5
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Platform: PC
Intro:
In the third year of a degree in 3D animation and video games at Ynov, students have to do a final year project in the form of a vertical slice. I was in a group of 4 people and on the idea of one of my classmates we made a game where we had to do our shopping as quickly as possible and where we could also get into the other customers. As there were 4 of us artists, we had to decide how to divide up the programming and design tasks.
For the main design, my classmate who had the original proposal was the keystone, but we all had our say. For the programming, I took on the task, because I wanted to progress in programming to make it easier to prototype games later on. I also designed and programmed the UX and UI.
Design:
Because I was the programmer, I played a special role in the design of the game; it was to me that the others turned when they wanted to know if a feature was possible, how long it would take to complete. I was also involved in some specific design tasks such as the fake screenshots, the tutorial, the UX and the UI.
Tutorial:
I'm the one who was in charge of the tutorial level.
To begin with, when the player launches the level, a window with the game controls and explanatory text appears.
The first level is simple, a series of corridors for the player to get used to controlling the character and the camera.
Next, the player has to learn how to enter other customers and understand that this adds time to the timer, so I've put a lot of customers in a small area to make sure the player enters some of them.
For the use of the boost, and its destructive capacity, I've placed a barrier that the player can only cross with the boost.
Finally, in the last stage, the player has to collect all the items on his shopping list before going to the checkout to complete the level. Lors de la production du tutoriel, nous avons constaté qu'il était très difficile pour un joueur novice de terminer le niveau.
During the production of the tutorial, we realised that it was very difficult for a novice player to complete the level. We were close to the deadline, so with the time we had left we decided to add a help page at the start of the level, even if the text isn't the perfect answer, and we've also added decals on the floor of the level that give the player some advice.
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A lot of ennemies for be sur that th player hit somme and see the impact on the timer
Decal on the ground for tell to player some tips when it's really needed
UI and UX:
First of all, there's the list, which is the object that indicates where we are in completing the objective. That's why it was decided to make the list large on the screen, because the player needs to be able to clearly read the list and see what he's already collected or not.
There's the same problem with the timer, which indicates whether or not the player is close to the end of the game, and also with the time the player earns. This last point was the focus of a lot of thought to make the feedback when you enter the other clients really pleasant and understandable at the same time.
The boost was more anecdotal, as the most crucial question was the shape: circle, rectangle, circle outline, ....
We also chose to add the boost input to make sure it was easy for the player to use.
For the appearance part it was difficult, I did a lot of iteration, but I ran out of time, and in the end I decided to go with the theme of the elderly person doing the shopping and I chose to use the paper theme for the list and the other interface elements and the watch instead of a smartphone for the stopwatch, I've also tried to make the winnings look like credit cards, to give the player the impression that when they walk into someone's shop, they're taking their credit card and saving time.
One of the UI proposals
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Another one of the UI proposals
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Final UI rendering
What I have learnt:
It was the first time I'd worked on a group project for so long. I learnt how to deal with feedback on my work, especially on the user interface and the tutorial. But I also learnt to make difficult decisions when the deadline arrives and I'd like to have done more but the work has to be handed in.
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