DEMORIAL

A 6 week student project for the end of 1st year at AIE

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Game Title: Demorial

Time Frame: 6 Weeks

Engine: Unity

Constraints: Create a game meeting the brief within a 6 week period and observe the production pipeline of Pre-Production, Alpha, Beta and Gold/Master. 

Brief: Create a single player, real time, Hack'n'Slash game prototype with a perspective angle view. 

Concept: Demorial is Single player, Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash game developed for PC. 

Team composition: Each stream had a member double as a Lead. Two members were to take on the additional roles of Production Manager and Scrum Master. 

  • Designers: 3

  • Artists: 5

  • Programmers: 4

Tasks/Responsibilities:

  • Lead Designer -

    • Oversee and manage Design team

    • GDD creation and iteration

    • Balancing Gameplay

    • NavMesh Creation, bake and architecture

    • Level Layout adjustments and asset implementation

    • Blueprints

    • Greyboxing

       

  • Production Manager -

    • Scheduling project including and within milestones Alpha, Beta and Gold in conjunction with Leads.

    • Has vision over all departments to ensure that workflow and tasks are meeting productivity and efficiency levels.

    • Co-ordinate Teams

    • Run production meetings in conjunction with the Scrum Master.

 

Alpha

Alpha

The programmers worked tirelessly to ensure we had a functional game within the short two weeks of alpha. With several layout changes and navmesh issues we still managed a fun and playable alpha. 

Beta

Beta

It was time for the artists to shine with two distinct biomes, bioluminescent flora and fully animated characters the world took shape. The art really enhanced the player experience and bolstered the story we were trying to tell. 

 

Master

Master/Gold

The final product at the end of six weeks of hard work was a polished and fun game which met the brief in all aspects. 

 

Post Mortem

For a group of 12 first year game development students whom the majority had not worked with a team before this game turned out rather well. We met our deadlines and worked well together towards a common goal. 

The project itself was not without issues however; 

  • Navmesh problems created delays in building the level as we needed Navmesh architecture assets to ensure that AI would not exceed the boundaries of play.

  • Our main character sword attack animation lacked the weight to really convey to the player power of each hit.

Overall as students we learned many valuable lessons about the production pipeline, risk management and the ability to adapt to problems during production. If we were to continue development on Demorial I'd like to work on refining player feedback to ensure that players really get the feel of being an all powerful Demon and creating additional levels to explore the narrative and world in greater depth.  

Credits:

Production Manager/Lead Designer: Jess Sealey

Designers: Avery Whelan and James Fleming

Scrum Master/ Lead Programmer: Ashley Flynn

Programmers: Stijn Vermeulen, Aiden Sharp and Aaron Bergman

Lead Artist: Josh Gould

Artists: Jamie Jenssen, Zac Van Dyck, Dylan Martin and Josey Roche