VISUALIZER

  • Role: Game Design, VFX

  • Date: 2019 - 12 One Week Sprints

  • Engine: Unity

  • Platform: PC/Console

  • Team: Little Lizard Studios

    • Simon Estabrook, Ryan Place: Lead Designer

    • Graham Pannier, Jacob Olson, Thomas Sullivan: Designer

    • Monica Almodovar: Artist

    • Alex Rader: Lead Programmer

    • Aaron Hamilton: Programmer

    • Isaac Signer, Jennifer Carlin: Lead Artist

    • Cody Douglas, Brandon Schlossberg: Producer

Game Overview

“Visualizer” is an FPS rhythm shooter game where the player must progress through a nightclub and clear out the evil data leeches that are trying to take it over.

Our aim with “Visualizer” is to grasp and toy with the sense of satisfaction a player gets when they manage to pull off a complicated maneuver in a game. We aim to accomplish this by introducing a beat mechanic where players are incentivised to shoot enemies on the beat and use the down time between beats to reposition or pull of a crazy stunt so they can get that rush of adrenaline and satisfaction when they kill an enemy on the beat or manage to survive and progress through a song/level.

This game is played in the standard FPS style, using a mouse and the w, a, s, and d keys. When the game begins, they will quickly notice the background and all of the smaller nods to the music aspect of the game. Once the song begins and the environment and weapon starts to shift with the song, they will realize how their weapons work: by shooting on the beat of the song. The game continues with the player trying to survive the hordes of enemies until they eventually fall. This will result in a game over where they can restart of player a different scenario.

On top of a multi-level campaign mode, the game also includes an endless mode for players to test their rhythmic and survival skills. All that plus multiple upgrades for each weapon, changing how they play for even more combat variety.

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My Role

Game Design, VFX

Due to the relatively large number of members on the team, and the lack of a lead VFX artist, I was able to focus mostly on my VFX and game design for the game.

I came onto this project later after it had already been in development for around 10 weeks. When I got on, there was pretty much nothing in terms of visual effects. As I worked on the project, I was able to add particles and visual effects to as much of the game as I could. Every muzzle flash, explosion, spawn blast, mist particle, and UI particle is all stuff that I was able to add to the game. I even was able to use some new VFX techniques and explore the Unity Shader Graph when making various effects for the game.

I was also in charge of making sure the game felt as good as possible, and had proper feedback in all areas of gameplay. This means I worked with other designers to design satisfying weapons, and other feedback mechanics/systems in order to enhance the overall gameplay feel.

Postmortem

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Positives: 

Overall the team was very accepting of all of the new members when we joined halfway through the project. 

I was able to specialize in VFX and Weapon Design for the entirety of my time on the project.

I was able to explore new VFX techniques, hone my art skills, and get more practice in the VFX Field specifically.

The final product was beautiful, well received, and polished

Room For Improvement: 

I think in terms of leadership, some of the programmers could have been handled better, work could have been better spread across certain members.

I think that some aspects of the project could have been better set up from the start, not having a full character could have saved a lot of animation time and it was not really needed at the end. 

I think I could have focused even more on more art related aspects of the VFX to make things EVEN prettier, and the timing and materials on certain effects could be changed in order to see slight improvement.

The music in the game could have been easier to hit on beat, and had a more rhythmic feeling.

Feedback and timing on beat hits could have been more precise but due to programming issues this was not the case.

Closing Comments:

My experience working with Little Lizard Studios and the team of visualizer was overall really great. I loved the team, we worked well together and were able to foster a really friendly environment for everyone, while also making a kickass game in the end.