SoulSync City

SoulSync City

GAME DESIGN | TEAM LEAD

Software

SoulSync City is a cyberpunk movement shooter game where the player must traverse through a city using 3 movement tools while they try to topple an Artificial Intelligence system ruling the city

This game was made for my senior capstone project at Bradley University. There were 26 members on the team including design, art, sound design,  programming, and production. 

 

Play the game here on Itch.io- SoulSync City Itch.io

Design Team Lead

  • Level design
  • User Experience design
  • Mechanic design / balance
  • Enemy design
  • Playtesting

Tutorial Level Design

Starting off with the tutorial of the game I got a few sketches down and a greybox to then start testing the 3 types of tools we had to teach the player. 

 

It was important that the players gain an adequete amount of skill with the tools so there is not a huge learning curve in the rest of the levels as new mechanics and enemies are introduced. 

Greybox
 
After running some playtests and getting a basic greybox layout of the tutorial that included the base architecture the narrative required as well as the architecture for the various tools and mechanics the player needed to learn, I discovered that the level on a whole was much too large and so I decided to cut about half of the level.
 

What this did was, we were able to get the player into the action faster and then we could start having the player do the most fun part of the game immediately. 

Polish

After having the level in development for a few months we moved were able to implement the art into the level and get the level flow, pacing, and teaching aspects of the level done. Which then brought us into the polish phase.

During this time we made the following changes to the tutorial to polish the story, art, and overall player experience

  • new download effects for each tool 
  • More step by step mission points to guide the player
  •  Giving the player more feedback about what they were doing 
 

Final Version

By the end of the project at our Gold milestone I was able to create a level that 

  • Taught the player all 3 tools they will use in the other levels of the game
  • Give the player an introduction to the narrative
  • Introduce combat to the player
  • Introduce the mechanic of destroying generators to pass into new areas
 

At our end of year showcase FUSE, hundreds of people were able to play the game and we had a majority of players understand the tools and the goal. 

Tutorial Level Playthrough

Play the game here on Itch.io- SoulSync City Itch.io

Let's talk about how I can help further your next project

Contact Me