Galaxy Divided

A 3rd person shooter where players assume the role of a galactic bounty hunter, venturing across multiple planets to track down and rescue hostages and apprehend or kill dangerous targets. As bounties are successfully completed, players earn rewards in the form of money, which can be used to purchase a wide range of items that will enhance them. By investing in these upgrades, players become increasingly formidable, ready to take on stronger enemies and challenging boss encounters.

With its immersive gameplay and a captivating sci-fi setting, this game offers an exciting journey as players rise through the ranks and establish themselves as the most skilled bounty hunter in the galaxy and take down the leader of the galaxy’s largest criminal organization.

This game was created by 2023 Game Design Studio class at Moorpark College, developed over a semester by a team of 15 students.

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Contributions

Design Lead

In my role as a design lead, I spearheaded the design process, crafting the game’s vision, mechanics, and overall gameplay experience. Additionally, I took on the responsibilities of a system designer, purposefully designing and implementing intricate game systems that enhanced player immersion and satisfaction. Through collaboration with the development team, I ensured seamless integration of these systems, resulting in a cohesive and polished final product

Bounty Design

Among the systems I had to design, a key one are the game’s bounties. The game features detailed bounties with unique objectives. Each bounty type, such as killing enemies, rescuing individuals, or capturing bosses, has varying risk levels that impact time limits and enemy difficulty.

Players earn rewards based on completion time and can pursue optional sub-objectives for additional rewards. The gameplay loop is composed of the player gaining rewards from bounties to then buy items to grow stronger and complete more bounties, the game story and main loop are supported by them.

Items Design

I was also responsible for the Items’ design. The items in the game were carefully designed to be useful individually and also synergize with each other, fostering the creation of specific builds or the mixing of items for diverse playstyles. By strategically selecting and combining various items, players can create unique and powerful builds that align with their preferred playstyles.

These items offer a range of bonuses and effects, including increased damage, shield enhancements, damage reduction, cooldown reduction, healing abilities, and more. This versatility and the potential for different combinations further enhance the game’s replayability, allowing players to experiment with a variety of strategies and approaches in each playthrough.

Character Design

In my role as a character designer, I had the opportunity to create on two distinct playable characters for the game: a melee character and a ranged character. With careful consideration, I defined their abilities, stats, and playstyles, ensuring that each character provided a unique and fulfilling gameplay experience. Furthermore, working with the concept artists to ensure that the approved character designs aligned perfectly with the envisioned concepts.

Characters Loadout

Ranger

Beam Pistol (Right click) – Automatic gun that shoots with bursts of 3 projectiles per second, with a 500 millisecond cooldown between each burst.

Missile (Left Click) – The player launches a missile upwards that seeks an enemy that was aimed at the moment of launching the missile, the projectile comes out from a secondary weapon that causes a large explosion that will have a 1.5 unit radius.

Slide (E key) – The player will slide forward 8 units in 1 second and will still be able to shoot. if the player jumps mid-slide, they will maintain the momentum.

Fighter

Spear (Right click) – a Double-sided Spear, the character has a 4-hit combo that resets after the 4th one.

Spear Laser (Left Click) – player shoots a piercing beam with their spear that goes through every enemy in its way.

Triple dash (E Key) – The player does 3 consecutive short dashes making a small explosion after every dash. The player is invincible while dashing and each dash will have 3 units of distance.

UI/UX Design

As a UI/UX designer, I was responsible for creating an intuitive and visually appealing user interface that enhanced the overall player experience. I meticulously designed and implemented user-friendly menus, icons, and HUD elements, ensuring easy navigation and clear communication of important information. Additionally, I focused on optimizing the game’s controls and input systems to provide a seamless and immersive gameplay experience. By collaborating with the development team, I ensured that the UI/UX design met players’ needs and expectations, elevating the overall enjoyment of the game.

Difficulty progression /

Enemy Stages

Enemy spawning and difficulty progression in the game utilize “stages”, all enemies are categorized into one of 5 stages, where tougher enemy stages unlock as players progress through their run. Stages are unlocked based on gameplay duration, introducing challenging adversaries that spawn in the level.

Within each stage, players encounter diverse enemy types with unique movesets, characteristics, and abilities, adding depth to the gameplay experience. The combination of stage-based progression and varied enemy encounters ensures players are constantly engaged and tested as they adapt their strategies to overcome the distinct challenges presented by each stage and enemy archetype.

Sound Engineer

As the sound engineer, I took charge of designing a seamless audio experience for the game. By implementing a robust sound manager and communicating with the development team, I effectively organized and integrated the team’s diverse sound effects (SFX) into the gameplay. With careful attention to detail, I synchronized and positioned the SFX to align with in-game actions, immersing players in a captivating auditory landscape.

Future Planning

Expansion of Planets

As the game progresses, the game will have more planets with unique environments, enemies, and challenges. This will increase the variety and replayability of the game, providing players with new experiences and bounties to undertake, player will unlock unique planets based on the bounties they take and their success take.

This will also generate an incentive for players, they will strive to unlock all planets, and the only way of doing this is by exploring everything the game can offer and get out of their comfort zone and pick bounties they are not good at.

Additional Characters

By expanding the roster of playable characters we immediately add more replayability and encourage the player to explore their preferred playstyle, these characters could be locked behind achievements that will also encourage the player to get out of their comfort zone and try to beat secondary objectives as they are completing bounties as fast as they can.

Co-op Multiplayer

implementing a cooperative multiplayer mode where players can team up with friends to tackle bounties and challenges together. This feature will enhance the social aspect of the game and provide a cooperative gameplay experience.