Abaddon — ABeanTaylor

SUMMARY

Produced Fall of 2022. Abaddon is an action RPG about a mythological takeover of 1980s New York. At its core, Abaddon is a game about the player and their struggles as a character in the world and out -- with the hope of promoting independence and responsibility. Enter the world of psychedelic

CONTRIBUTIONS: I worked on implementing level design, kit assembly, and metric research. I worked alongside Clay and Erin to create the levels up to the Monastery. Utilizing Remnant of the Ashes' metric research as an insight study into movement and controls.

SPECIFICATIONS

TEAM: +40
GENRE: 3rd Person Psychedelic Shooter
DURATION: 8 Weeks
SOFTWARE: Unity, Confluence, Google Slides, Perforce, Photoshop, and OBS.

TRAILER

METRIC RESEARCH

Clay instructed myself and Simon Smith to conduct metric research for the Game Remnant From The Ashes to understand how to replicate some of the movement. This step was necessary to better inform the systems designers and myself of the metric of the player and world space to create well adapted controls and movement to our game Abaddon.

Using Remnant From The Ashes as a research reference was a challenge due to the lack of accessible documentation. One of the first hurdles was understanding the player metrics and world metrics. This was accomplished by using the height of a standard shipping barrel within the scene. It was vital to our research to create reference points to understand the distance the player moved in each state, running, jumping, attacking, etc. This standard metric provided me with enough information to use perspective math to find the exact dimensions of a rug found in the Main Hub using it as marker for distance.

Utilizing OBS Input capture software, Simon and I recorded our findings, we wrote down the number of frames to complete each action, the number of milliseconds, the distance traveled, and if there were any invisibility frames, etc. Using the gamepad controller input we calculated the sensitivity to understand the variation and communicate that with the programmers so they would have a starting place when inputting variables for movement.

VISUAL THEMATIC

The artwork below was created by our concept artists for the level designers to reference when blocking out the spaces. This helped inform the designers to understand the art direction and aesthetic while enabling the game designers to focus on game mechanics, item placement, encounters and narrative beats.

The concept art was a valuable asset when it came to recreating the spaces in engine. From blocking out to revisions and art passes. The art and design direction ensured the levels were being recreated 1:1 with the concept art with minor changes to benefit the player experience. Art, modeling and design were working in tandem with each other to recreate, envision and implement.

BLOCK OUT PROCESS

I received several concept pieces a simple map and a mission to replicate and redesign the underground metro, topside slums, No-lander tailgate, and the Stage up, u and to the Monastery. In the engine, I blocked out the spaces and populated them with assets, lighting, decals, and text for beats. Replicating the concept art and the guide map, I communicated with Clay to adjust the TailGate section to be under an overpass to ramp up the Monastery and bring forth a bleak contrast between the class system within New New York. More importantly, it was a challenge to create destruction while preserving the conservation law within the level. Where destruction is contextualized with environmental storytelling. For instance rubble never magically appears, there’s always a reason such as a dilapidated roof or fallen wall or building.

ASSET ASSEMBLY

Working with Serena Lee and other talented modelers I brought assets into the engine and adjusted their materials, bump maps, lighting, and scale to match the original design intent. Occasionally I’d request special assets from the modeling team such as snippets of trim or variations in kit pieces to make fabricating the environments more streamlined and efficient. After assembling and organizing the kit pieces it was time to put them in place, this included buildings, decal graffiti or rubbish on the walls and floor, emissive string lights above, and a variety of signs and metropolis assets. One challenge was creating building variations and mixing assets to create unique store fronts that were visually distinctive.

FINAL POLISH

This project was a huge collaboration with many multidisciplinary skilled individuals working together to create the final vertical slice. Working with the Abaddon team was a wonderful experince that felt inclusive and supportive, encouraging inovation and creative thinking. Im Thankful for the project team.

Abaddon was a successful capstone project. it replicated a well oiled pipe line where collaboration and communication were priority. This was the one of the first projects where I had the privilege to work with many skilled individuals to create the vision we all believed in.