GENRE: ANTI GRAV RACER
DEVELOPER: NHTV
ROLE: LEVEL DESIGNER
AGR was developed with the intention to focus on the support of Tools and the Custom PlayStation Engine.We created a game while developing the engine and tools at the same time, giving feedback on the engine features and tools from a level design & game design perspective.
This project focused on the development of a custom game engine, rather than the creation of an unique game product
Level Designer
• Support Engine team by prototyping a game concept fit for their engine
• Research what defines a good feeling racing game (Game Metrics)
• Design and Whiteboxing the track layout, with use of Maya & Houdini
• Address Project Scope and discuss design ideas
▶️ This project focused on the creation of a custom engine for the PlayStation 4. My team was asked to create a game with the engine while its in development to test out features.
▶️ I was tasked with creating a race track to demo the features of the engine. My tasks included, research, conceptualizing, conducting playtests, analysis and bug fixing.
"Extremely good evidence of Trinh's improved ability to identify the relevant game metrics necessary for tuning and balancing specific aspects of the game, and describe how the data is to measured and analyzed. He did solid research on racing games to help guide his efforts, and this provided him with assurance that his basic track design would perform as needed - before it was even playtested!"
David Wessman (Design Lecturer, Ex-employee @ LucasArts)
▶️ With "Goran de Ruiter", I was one of of the two level designers on the project. Our tasks as level/track designers was to facilitate the custom engine and Houdini tool teams. Requesting features and tools to make our work as track designers easier. Allowing us to create a level in a short amount of time.
▶️ During the project, we researched other racing games, understanding the aspects of what makes a racing game feel like a racing game. Track metrics were an important topic to research. As later, during the whiteboxing phase, proved to be important to maintain consistency and to replicate the race sim feeling.
As an example: Track width, Distance between landmarks, Camera FOV, Interval of turns and other players. Would all influence the experience for the players.
▶️ Our level editor was Maya. We created our track inside of Maya with help of a few Houdini tools, created by our dedicated Houdini artist "Feike Postmes". His tools would allow us to rapid prototype our tracks. We would be able to draw and manipulate a curve and hit the bake button to create the track. Because of our extensive research in track metrics, our created levels would be playable right out of the box.
