Tomb for Two
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I was a member of the design team on this project. The design team got segmented into focusing on specific areas of gameplay. I was a puzzle designer and my focus was ‘push block’ puzzles.
All of the designers shared responsibility for coming up with the game’s systems/game loop. I created content beyond push block puzzles but that was the area of design I was charged with.
As a designer I was responsible for creating two dungeon rooms a week once we entered ‘full’ production. I also iterated on all my puzzles each week as well as bug fixing/reporting.
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This game was developed in the Fall semester of my senior year. It was developed through weekly meetings over the course of 81 days.
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Made using Unity version 2021.3.16f1.
The team used Unity’s in house collaboration software Plastic to pull and push changes across our devices.
The design team used a mixture of burn down charts and Trello to organize and assign tasks. We also used Discord to communicate outside of the weekly meetings.
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Producer: Gaby Bendtsen
Assistant Producer: Ian Kercorian
Programming Team:
Collin Cole (Director)
Drew White (Director)
Zane Aridi
David Bandila
Blake BeMent
Roman D'Alessandro
Nick Fraus
Ronit Kiri
Charles Lamb
Kathryn Nagy
Kyle Nowak
Jackson Pawlicki
Bridgette Piecka
Andrew Tran
Toby Wright
Design Team:
Marshall Gaines (Director)
Nicole Stocks (Director)
Louis Artale
Thomas Bromell
Daniel Cervera-Holman
Drew Cook
Justin Denard
Jonathan Grama
Miles Gonzales
Daniel Skolnick
Daniel Sohn
Vinh Tran
Art Team:
Dylan Marx (Director)
Rachel Tiv (Director)
Aidan Bieber
Ethan Britton
Kenya Carter
Baxter Deni
Ben Finkelstein
Citizen Kim
Yixi Knapp
Eric Roach
Bilal Saqib
Anna Sheahan
Ethan Tobias
Audio Team:
Adam Grisdale (Director)
Leo Hoerdemann
Khadeeja Khazi
Tyberius Livingston
Eric Peek
Quality Assurance:
Mikayla Miklasz (Director)
Caleb Flosky
Michael Kleinbriel
Jay Lee
Luke Marchand
Cameron Otten
Joseph Pacentine
Aleeya Peters
Ian Q. Pope
Ethan Powell
Zoie Tsoi
Ethan White
Sarah Wood
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Spartasoft Studio is a student founded/run game development studio at Michigan State University.
The club started making games in January 2022 and together we have developed a game every semester since its inception. Tomb for Two was the 2nd game launched by Spartasoft.
Tomb for Two is a local 2-player dungeon crawler where Anubis and Bastet have been trapped in a pyramid. Set in a far-off futuristic world, the two players must escape the pyramid by defeating enemies and solving puzzles together!
Designed core gameplay systems and features
Collaborated with other designers to create documentation on in game systems and features
Prototyped puzzles on paper before working in Unity
Designed and iterated on new levels every week
Fixed gameplay or level design related bugs that arose when testing
Communicated across disciplines to explain the design teams vision
Created a large amount of the dungeons that made it into the final game
Contributions
Reflection
What Could’ve Been Better
The methods of communication and organizational structure at the studio were under development. Spartasoft Studio was founded in the year prior and roughly 30 students participated. On this project 60 people were involved so essentially the studio doubled in size while still trying to find its identity and establish best practices. This project was a step in the right direction but there was a lot of learning as we went and it shows in the final product.
Our design process was fragmented. Every designer was responsible for a different area of design and for their own levels. For the most part we were working independently. This led to a process where everyone was trying to fully develop their design niche. What got lost was cohesion amongst everyones designs leading to major redundancy and lack of necessary features. The final product felt disjointed as a result of this.
What I Learned
On this project I was able to gain additional experience collaborating across teams. I developed a better understanding of the needs and concerns of the entire studio not just the design team. Multiple elements and considerations are involved in a studio environment and this project highlighted that.
I learned the importance of effective communication. You can type up mountains of documents explaining the minutiae of every design decision but, if nobody reads it, it might as well not exist. The importance of prioritizing information; the value of brevity; and the ability to deliver key data to each team was required.
This experience designing 3D levels as well as designing puzzles was an accomplishment. I not only got more experience in 3D we also were using an interesting camera angle that I had never experienced before. This brought it’s own problems which then led to finding design solutions and learning through that process.
What Went Well
Tomb for Two is an example of a game where I produced consistent exceptional designs on time. The team of Spartasoft Studio volunteers were assigned tasks with certain milestones. It is entirely up to each individual to fulfill those obligations. I worked diligently on this project and completed all work designated to me by the deadlines, as expected every week.
According to my peers the rooms I created produced innovative exceptional levels. They loved them! I received praise from my fellow designers with some even saying they modeled their rooms after my concepts. The recognition from colleagues who have an understanding of the skills involved was truly appreciated. I’m a dedicated designer and I think that shone through in this project.