Streamlined Mastermind
Received the Best Design Award
Breda University  |  Year 2  |  2019-2020
Received the Best Programming Award
Breda University  | Year 2  |  2019-2020
Concept
Research & Design
Quick Design
The goal for the end of this phase was to have a playable demo that would showcase the core game loop. Within the 4 week time-box, the team and myself learnt a lot about setting and managing priorities.
Unity
Initially Streamlined Mastermind had started as a Unity project. As this was my first project using the engine, some time was spent into researching level editors and how to use them to create our own levels.
Procedural Generation
In the early stages, the level design for Streamlined Mastermind was designed to be procedurally generated before turning to hand-crafted levels. This lead to strong communication between myself and the team's tools programmer.
Pre-Production
Plan & Documentation
Switch to Unreal
In pre-production the team opted to switching to Unreal Engine 4 as that was an engine more familiar to the whole team. This and the removal of procedural level generation was done to make the project a better fit for the team and our expertise.
Modular Set
The project plan and the game's intended progression suggested multiple levels. To cater to this goal, I focused on keeping consistency by creating a modular set for building the level. This would reduce the iteration pipeline in the production phase.
Pipeline Creation
The team was expected to grow from the 10 person team that it was in the concepting phase. Despite being the only level designer, I decided it would be best to identify the step-by-step for designing a level to further keep consistency in case another level designer joined.
Production
Build & Iteration
Team Management
The team grew by 8 members from the 10 in the concepting phase. As design lead, it became a priority to ensure that communication was upheld in order to keep the vision aligned. This role served as a large learning opportunity as it provided me with practice to view the project holistically.
4 Levels
The team had not gained another level designer for the last 2 months of the project. However, having set up the pipelines in pre-production helped set me up for the 4 levels I would end up making and iterating on during this phase.
Diegetic UI
One of the biggest selling points of Streamlined Mastermind is it's diegetic UI. As this was a first for most of the team, aid from other members was needed. As level designer I helped in setting up a layout for the UI elements on the desk as well as blueprint some of said elements like the sticky notes that list the level objectives.
