The Dark Lord Dragomartholomew, a once infamous wizard, has suffered a great betrayal from a rival sorceress. A betrayal at the hands of his own daughter, Demetria Mistress of Carnage. She has stolen his armies and promised to bring him to ruins. Only one remaining skeleton guard, Delaney, and Dargomatholomew remain to defend his keep or else he loses everything.
Defend Dragon's Keep is an asymmetrical VR tower defense game designed for two players. One player enjoys the traditional tower defense through the computer, while the second player uses VR to join the melee. This game was developed over an 8-week cycle using the HTC Vive.
Release Date:
June 1, 2018
Time Frame:
8 Weeks
Platform:
PC/HTC VIVE
Engine/Language:
Unity3D/C#
Team Size:
3
Production Roles:
Narrative Designer
Level Designer
Systems Designer
Available On:
Narrative Design Doc
Narrative Designer
My primary role in this project was as a narrative designer. I was tasked with creating a narrative that matched our 3D Dungeon assets and ensuring that the narrative improved the player experience. This meant that most of the planned cinematics and other narrative devices were cut. Ultimately, those cuts improved game flow and pacing. The main tasks I achieved were:
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Create and Maintain a Narrative Doc
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Script Cinematics
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Script Ambient Dialogue
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Test the Game for Narrative Quality
Level Designer
Level Design was my secondary role in this project. I worked with my team to test and iterate our levels so that we created a well-paced and immersive tower defense. I created both the tutorial level and the final level. I was challenged with teaching the game mechanics to the players as both the PC player and VR player had unique experiences of the game. Ultimately, my main focus as a level designer went to finding a good balance between two very divergent experiences and ensuring that each player was equally engaged with the task at hand. My main responsibilities included:
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Teaching the Player Core Mechanics
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Testing Level Concepts for Fun and Flow
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Providing Feedback to Systems
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Creating an Immersive and Balanced Experience
Systems Designer
The tertiary role that I filled was as a systems designer. I supported our main systems designer by designing and implementing some of the PC player mechanics. As well as the implementation of UI elements for the VR player. This included:
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PC Player Spell Mechanics
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PC Player Teleporting VR Player
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Next Wave/Win/Teleportation UI Elements for VR Player
Narrative Design Process
Cinematic Design by: Trystin Rosenberger
Level Design Process
Level Design
