Summary

My first project as a design lead, Project Arcana is a fast-paced top down stealth action title with a focus on speed and finding the best route through the level.

Development

Originally a stealthier take on modern XCOM titles, players would command a squad of magical druids as they infiltrate high-tech facilities to reclaim stolen artefacts. The gameplay focus would be on combining the abilities of each druid to encourage an experimental play-style.

When we reached second semester, the game was significantly behind where it needed to be. We decided to scrap features in all aspects of its design. Moving the game from its strategic roots to a real-time action title.

As the semester approached its final weeks I transitioned to a generalist programmer/tech-art role where I would handle the lighting setups, materials and adding juice into the game’s mechanics where I could.

What I Did

The Trailer – Direction, Editing, FX.

In the final weeks of development, I used Unreal’s sequencer to put together a cinematic trailer for the game. I would then add extra effects such as lens flares in Hitfilm:

The Sequencer Keyframes
Compositing in Hitfilm

The Teaser Trailer [STROBE WARNING]

Gameplay UI

Base UI – Layout and Art Iterations

The first iteration of game UI.
The first art pass, future art passes would be done by the producer.

Player Path – Programming

Main Menu

Level Design

The Final Level Design – Created in Blender, this allowed me to get a feel of the level before touching the engine.

FX

Lighting and Post Processing

Once all the environment art assets were placed in-engine, I began tweaking the colour grading, fog, chromatic aberration, lens flares, ambient occlusion and other post processing. From there, I then added reflection probes around the environment for better ambient reflections and increased the skylight intensity.