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Pango

"Pango" is a 3D Platformer made with a team of 17 students where you play as Pango, an archaeologist-built AI android who explores a hidden temple, navigating twists, leaping over ruins, gathering relics, and unveiling an ancient civilization's mysteries.

This was a student project in my 2nd year where we received a creative brief that requested a: "3rd person skill-based platformer". I was a Technical Designer on this project who worked on player abilities and camera systems. Beyond that, my responsibilities also included the QA processes, marketing opportunities & overseeing the design of the project and reviewing other's work. 

Engine

Unreal Engine 5.1

Team Size

17 Developers

Role

Technical Designer

Genre

3D Platformer

Development Time

8 Weeks

In this project, I collaborated with another designer to primarily develop the player abilities and camera systems. Our key objective was to seamlessly blend the character's two movement modes: rolling and walking. This focus was so critical that it influenced the creation of one of our game pillars, emphasising a Yin and yang synergy between these two modes.

Character Controller

Making prototypes for concepts

During the concept phase, I worked on various prototypes to explore the gameplay and systems of the player character. These prototypes would include features such as combat, camera and level design ingredients. 

Prototyping combat systems

The original character concept included combat for the character's abilities. I created two prototypes for potential combat systems.

  1. The character deals more damage at higher rolling velocity, maintaining gameplay focus on the ball mode, which players prefer. The prototype was completed after consistency improvements.

  2. The player stuns enemies by rolling into them, then switches to walking mode for a melee attack. This system makes both modes relevant for combat.

Unfortunately, combat as a whole was scrapped for the project as it would be out of scope due to the lack of artists required to produce assets for it. ​

Research & prototyping of camera systems

I also focused on improving the camera for the gameplay. From the beginning of the project, I dedicated significant effort to researching advanced camera techniques. The main goal was to reduce player discomfort or disorientation while keeping important game information in their view. I created four prototypes to potentially enhance the game's accessibility and feel.

Planning high-level features for 3Cs

In my research of high-speed character games for reference on player control and accessibility, I collaborated with a fellow designer to establish plans and goals for the 3Cs.

My contributions involved:

  • Defining design pillars for the character controller.

  • Creating move set diagrams to illustrate the interconnected abilities.

  • Participating in brainstorming sessions to introduce a new ability for the character's walking mode.

During early feature planning, we initially considered adding a "Bounce" ability in conjunction with the ground pound. However, we ultimately had to remove it due to physics inconsistencies with the character and limited development time, as we neared the feature-lock stage.

Implementing player abilities & camera systems

For the end product, I developed and implemented the features found below into the game which can be found and played in the official itch.io release. Once the features were past prototyping and in a functional state, I collaborated with the animator and other artists to get the art assets implemented and progress towards a presentable character. These features were play-tested within the team and with our target audience to provide action points from which we can iterate and improve the player experience.

Click the thumbnail above to watch the video. Click the arrows on the sides to view more.

Collaboration

For this project, I was also assigned as the Lead Designer. Part of my responsibilities in this role was to champion team wide communication & collaboration and was done through different methods such as team documentation, monitoring meetings, macro planning. 

Writing a Game Design Overview

I created a Game Design overview on our team's Miro board to provide a high-level view of the game's development progress. The Miro board was the main software for collaboration in our team, so I placed it in an accessible location for everyone to find.

This overview serves as a reference point for the entire team, offering clarity about the game's direction and goals. It acts as a means to maintain the team's creative vision alignment.

Document templates were provided by peers of my study.

Lead QA process

In my role as a lead, I took responsibility for the state of each build, considering it a direct reflection of the project's progress. I led all QA meetings and oversaw the processes. This would mean I oversaw:

  • Smoke Tests, where developers played the build in groups and reported on the status of the content to see if it functions as intended.

  • The conditions of satisfaction, a document that evaluates the levels and ensure they met all the necessary conditions for delivering the intended player experience.

Supporting project management (Scrum)

In our team, all leads collaborated to support the producer in maintaining the Scrum board and ensuring that the team followed the Scrum methodology throughout the project.

At the project's beginning, this involved assisting with:

  • The scope breakdown, to estimate what we needed to deliver for the result.

  • Establishing milestones for the high-level plan.

  • Creating and updating the product backlog and risk list as development progressed.

In my lead role, I actively upheld Scrum rituals, including standups, retrospectives, and planning. For Sprint planning, us leads convened before the team to choose User Stories from the product backlog and incorporate them into the sprint backlog.

Support

With this being a student project that aimed to deliver a full player experience and had to do marketing for the release of the game, there were some contributions/task that were not related to my role or specialization that I took up on for the sake of the project.

Implementing Audio using Meta Sounds

I dedicated time to creating and implementing Audio FX in the game. The audio was sourced from online libraries, edited in Audacity, and then integrated into Unreal Engine 5.

I primarily utilized Sound Cues for the audio FX, but for the rolling sound of the character, I took advantage of one of the latest features in UE5, Meta Sounds.

Since rolling was a continuous, looping feature, using a sound cue would involve playing it on a tick or adding a delay before it could play again. However, Meta Sounds provided the ability to loop the sound when the audio finished playing without overlapping itself and stop it immediately when the character stopped rolling.

Comparison of the first & final iteration

Creating marketing content & networking

In this project, I was also participating in the game's marketing. The responsibilities I took up were:

  • The "release date" & "launch" trailers for the project (the launch trailer can be found at the top of the page).

  • Finding and contacting an event in Rotterdam called, where any indie/student project can sign up and showcase their game to the public and perform playtests.

This allowed us to gather more in-person feedback from an audience outside our school and get people playing our game on release. 

Postmortem

Achievements

  • Within the span of 8 weeks, our team worked together to make a game that was positively received by its players. 

  • We were able to implement & balance the 3Cs and their features swiftly, before handing the metrics off to the Level Designers.

  • Based on peer feedback, I performed well in the lead position by helping the producer and supporting the developers so that they could focus on doing their work.

Challenges

  • As a lead, my development time was limited, with the majority dedicated to other responsibilities, including mentoring first-year students.

  • With little experience, our team attempted to make a game with a physics character in a short time.

  • With our short development time, I had to develop, test and polish features in a concise amount of time and plan my time wisely.

Learnings

  • The lead position comes with a lot of responsibilities that need to be fulfilled for the sake of the project, but it allows for less time to develop features. 

  • Developing a physics character requires a lot of time to test and iterate to work out all issues and can make or break a project this small.

  • Developing on top of Unreal's base camera systems to improve the feel of the game is a must and the same goes for many of its other systems.

In-engine screenshot of the game Pango

Pango is available 

on Itch.io

Pango is a third-person skill-based platformer in which you play as Pango, an AI android made by archaeologists sent to an undiscovered temple to learn about the old society. Roll through winding pathways and jump over crumbling pillars as you collect ancient relics and uncover the secrets of an unknown civilization. Will you discover all the hidden secrets?

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