Crimson Drain

Our first video game project as 1st year students in game design school: a shoot-them-up game, using Construct 3. No additional genres allowed, preferably playable with a controller. On this project, I served as Project Lead, managing the team and directing the core vision for the game.

This project was essentially a crash course in making a video game: finding a design intention, sticking to it, following where it might lead and making adjustments in case something else shows up. It was also my first time working with other people, and taking the lead role at that. It was a difficult role to assume, but I grew a lot as a designer and as a person.

making the game 🢆

We initially made quick pitches for our game ideas, then mixed our breakthrough mechanics and themes together: a health bar with a lifesteal special attack, items you could pick up and use, and a cyberpunk theme on top. The design of each of these core tenets went through a lot of iterations. For instance, our cyberpunk story was supposed to be serious at first, but we eventually went for a more over-the-top synthwave parody style, inspired by the likes of Kung Fury and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

As I had to assume the lead role, I took the responsibility to organize the team's meetings and tasks. I also had to give my approval to most new assets included into the game. As a developer, I also set the basic structure for the game's code, creating tools that my coworkers could reuse to create new enemies or items quickly.