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HaberDashers

Details

HaberDashers is a kart-racer the whole cohort made in my second semester of SMU Guildhall. It was the first Semester 2 team project to be published on Steam in the history of the program, despite spending the latter half of production in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unusually among kart-racers, it is themed off of "tiny people in a big world", along the lines of The Borrowers and Tom Thumb. The game supports local multiplayer for 2-4 players and online multiplayer through Steam Remote Play. I worked on conveyance and gameplay in this project.

Game Statistics:

  • Engine: Unreal 4

  • Platform: Windows

  • Genre: Kart-racer

  • Team Size: 57

  • Development Time: 12 weeks

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Conveyance Design

Conveyance Strike Team

Duties

  • Developed consistent audio/visual language for the game with Chevis McMillin-Brockway (Designer), including:

    • Boost colors to denote how fast the player is going

    • Directional Arrows on the track

    • Shortcut decals

    • HUD and Menu design

    • All included in this document.

  • Coordinated with art, programming, and level design teams​ to prioritize tasks and promote clarity for the player

  • Wrote and proofread mechanics tutorials in the main menu

Breakdown

The Conveyance Strike Team was created mid-way through production solely to solve problems the dev team ran into after Vertical Slice. The gameplay mechanics were starting to feel good, sound was coming along well, art was on schedule, and the levels were solidifying, but during playtesting, players were getting lost and not understanding the different mechanics of our game such as different speed levels and shortcuts. In short, we needed better conveyance. The leads quickly determined that we needed to create a small strike team to address this issue. I was asked to deal with this crisis, leaving the Pickups Team to work with Chevis.

Dash Tiers

  • Problem: Players didn't know how the different boosts ("dashes") worked and how fast they were going with each one.

  • Solution: Chevis and I compiled the list of different effects in the game that change the kart speed and developed distinct color and shape language for the different tiers (see table to the right).​

    • We made sure to use colors that could be distinguished by color blind folks. Trail length also varied for added contrast. ​

DashTiersTable.png

Directional Arrows

  • Problem: Players had trouble telling which way they needed to go on the tracks, easily getting turned around. 

  • Solution: Chevis and I concepted directional arrows that were thematically appropriate to the game (post-it notes on popsicle sticks), artist Dana Brooks made the model, and I animated it to rock back and forth with blueprints. We then placed them in the levels periodically so some would always be in the player's vision.

HaberDashersHamsterIconSuper.jpg

Shortcuts

  • Problem: Players didn't know when to turn off for shortcuts that used 7-coin dashes.

  • Solution: Chevis, Dana Brooks, and I concepted out an arrow sticker decal the same color as the 7-coin boost. Dana then created the decal while Chevis and I placed them before shortcut locations in each track. 

HaberDashersShortcutStickers.jpg

HUD and Menu Design

  • Problem: Players needed to know when they could boost and when super items were available.

  • Solution: Chevis and I collaborated with UI team to concept out golden outline and haze for "7-coin boost ready", a coin counter, the gold outline for super items, and the boost ready icons, which UI team executed on.

Sound Design

  • Problem: Sound team needed to know what additional pieces they needed to make that weren't covered in game design document explicitly.

  • Solution: Chevis and I incorporated sound effects into our conveyance document and assembled a list of sounds we needed from Sound Team, with their collaboration and approval.

Conveyance Document

  • Chevis and I wrote and updated this document throughout the development process: Conveyance Design Document 

  • We kept track of everything that needed to be conveyed in the game, including gameplay, items, environment, UI, and HUD, as well as the audio and visual conveyance of each element in the category.

  • This allowed us to find problems or gaps in production that hadn't been addressed yet, which we could meet with different teams about to come up with solutions and keep them informed.

HDs Conveyance

Gameplay Design

Pickups Team

Duties

  • Worked in team of designers and programmers to develop pickups and item mechanics, including tiered boost coin system, usable items, and tiered item abilities.

  • Created blueprints for Hamster Ball Shield pickup and Hazards system used in all three tracks.

Breakdown

Because of the huge importance of power-ups and other pickups in kart racers, we had a Pickups Team of designers from the beginning of production. We worked closely with programmers to develop, prototype, and test the items that any given kart could pick up in the game, and we developed the systems that would give the players strong choices to make in second-to-second gameplay.

​

Tiered Coin Boost (Game Design)​

  • I pitched a tiered coin boost system in preproduction where you could press a button to spend coins for bursts of speed. 3 coins for small boost, 6 coins for medium, and 10 coins for large.

  • Fellow designer Sam Hooser volunteered to implement the system in Blueprints for a flash hack. The system carried over to the main game, and Sam and I were chosen for Pickups Team as a result.

  • After playtesting, we simplified it down to two tiers: 3 coins for a medium boost, and 7 coins for a large boost.

Super Items (Game Design)

  • With Sam Hooser and designer Alex Crovella, we mapped out a system where we would have fewer usable items than Mario Kart, but you could use "Super" versions of them whenever you had the maximum number of coins (7).

  • This would let us make stronger use of limited assets (5 items) while giving the player the choice whether to spend coins for a super boost or keep them for super items.

  • We were supported in this process through the coding prowess of programmer Li Yinjiang, who troubleshot and refined each of our blueprints designs. 

Hamster Ball Item (Blueprints/Game Design)

  • I pitched and built in blueprints a hamster ball that protects karts from other items and hazards.  

  • The normal version is destroyed after one hit, while the super version absorbs multiple hits and gives the player a speed boost, not unlike the star power in Mario Kart.

20200721071851_1.jpg

Hazard System (Blueprints)

  • Track team needed a hazard system to threaten kart racers with obstacles on their tracks.

  • I built an initial system that supported a wide variety of motions and could slow the player down, and programmer Tyler Wolverton assisted me in refining the system with object-oriented programming.

  • I also built the Rubber Duck and Soap hazards used in the Bathroom track and placed them in the level.

20200721071825_1.jpg

Magnet Item (Game Design)

  • I pitched a magnet for our usable items as a replacement for the iconic but much-maligned blue shell in Mario Kart.  

  • The magnet would still attack the person in front, but instead of merely stunning them, it would create an area of effect slowdown around them, clumping together any kart that comes near them. This punishes everyone at the front rather than just one person.

  • Fellow designer Alex Crovella volunteered to implement the system in Blueprints.

HaberDashersMagnetVisible.jpg
HDs Gameplay

Retrospective

What went well

  • Despite having to work from home during COVID, teams coordinated efficiently and amiably.

  • Learned a great deal about blueprints from working with programmers on Pickups Team.

  • Game saw marked improvements with player understanding and engagement after efforts of Conveyance Strike Team. 

​

What went wrong

  • Juggling all the different interests and making sure everyone knew conveyance info while working on Conveyance Strike Team was difficult mid-way through development.

  • Tasks would sometimes get lost after meetings due to large amount of info discussed.

​

What I learned

  • Determine necessary discussions early and contact those involved as soon as possible.

  • Gained a good understanding of Blueprints in Unreal 4 for a designer and the confidence to make my own stuff with them.

  • Object-oriented programming saves a lot of time when you have to do a lot of iterations of the same thing.

HDs Retro
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