Crucible (2020 – PC – Lumberyard)

Crucible is a third person shooter with multiple game modes, although it’s focus for most of it’s development was Battle Royale, with solo players or teams of two. I was the sole designer on the original incubation team and served as lead systems designer throughout the duration of the project.

The primary goals of the project (aside from the simple joy of well-polished gameplay) was to take the emerging BR genre and adapt it in the following ways:

  • Replace the inventory & ammo systems used in most BRs with a character-based ability and cooldown system.
  • Integrate PvE extensively to create opportunities for players to learn their characters and mechanics outside the high-stakes game-ending confrontations of PvP combat.
  • Use uncapped experience/leveling and objective systems to encourage proactivity throughout the game and to prevent late-game stalemates.
  • Create a dynamic alliance system to create dramatic moments and encourage flexible tactical thinking.

Throughout the course of the project I was responsible for:

  • General systems and pacing (leveling, arena contraction, etc).
  • All objectives.
  • AI enemies and interactive elements in the environment.
  • Game modes.
  • Character development specifically on Summer and Sazan (my role as Systems designer didn’t allow me to to develop any character from beginning to end, but I drove early development and iteration of these two concepts.