World War Toons
Studio Roqovan, 2015 - 2017, Unreal Editor 4.
World War Toons was a free-to-play online PvP FPS that was in open beta on Playstation 4 and Playstation VR for 8 months, until development was halted. The game is a cartoony WWII shooter in a Looney Tunes-esque style, with a roster of heroes with unique abilities, an ultimate ability to summon and ride a tank, and humorous powerups.
I came in a year before the start of open beta as a generalist game designer. I had a wide range of responsibilities including blocking out and scripting the tutorial materials, designing and implementing new characters, game modes, maps, and supporting animation and audio with blueprint setups. Though the majority of our players were playing in non-VR, developing to support both non-VR and VR players in a PvP game was an interesting challenge.
Almost all of the implementation work was done in C++.
At first, I was tasked with blocking out level geo and scripting gameplay for a short singleplayer tutorial mission. After the first-pass, we ultimately decided to take a more sandbox approach and create a “playground” of game elements for the player to try out in a safe space. I blocked out this playground level to be a combination of our multiplayer maps, reusing assets and presenting the powerups in a similar context to how players would find them in online matches. Below is the final version of Playground.
Another part of the first-time user experience I designed is a minigame to calibrate your VR turning sensitivity. It reuses existing game mechanics with a small challenge to get the beat of a familiar tune right, while making adjustments to your setting.
The later stages of development on World War Toons was for a full release on PC as well. I among other game designers pitched and prototyped new characters, game modes, and maps. We playtested regularly while iterating. These were of course never released due to the game’s cancellation, but it was a great environment to build a wide breadth of skills ranging from map design to frontend programming in UE C++.