Tobor
I worked on project management, level design and playtests/UX on Tobor. This project was made with a team of 9 people; designers, animators, artists, and programmers. It took us about 150 hours over 3 months to make Tobor a full ready-to-play platformer. The user plays as a robot that has lost one of its legs in a factory and needs to retrieve it. The robot has to make its way through a factory with one leg and the controls make it so it can only jump.
My role on this project
- Project management: Organizing tasks, sprints, and scrum meetings.
- Level design: Making 2D maps with different obstacles and paths. Blocking in Unreal.
- Playtests/UX : Taking playtests notes from users and reporting findings. Offering solutions to the team in order to make the experience better.
Design intention
We had the challenge to make our character around Luxo as an inspiration, the lamp from Pixar. Luxo moves with only it’s base. So after brainstorming, we decided to remove one of our character’s legs and made a backstory for it. The character’s movement influenced the level design a lot, we had to make sure the player could jump from platform to platform and make it feel good.
Brainstorming and early design
- Brainstorming and documenting our design ideas concerning level design, narrative design, and more.
- Preparation for initial pitch.
Character analysis and pitch
- Detailed and researched our character controller thoroughly.
- First presentation and feedback from peers.
Making our beta
- 2D level maps.
- Grey boxing in Unreal.
- Organizing playtests and reporting recurring comments from players to the team.
- Assigning tasks and sprints for the next steps.
Final version and showcase
For the final version, I kept working on the level design and doing the final integration. We still had playtests until the final week in order to try to perfect our experience. At the end of the project, we had the opportunity to showcase it in front of other peers and went through a full playthrough of around 10-15mins.