The Intern

Welcome to my FPS project - The Intern. Heavily inspired by Doom, Unreal Tournament and Evil Dead. During the final 2 terms of my game design cert, we were tasked with making a shooter project utilizing a framework as a base and unreal engine 4. Below is a brief example of what the framework looked like before any changes were made.

After making a pitch deck and conceptualizing the basic theme and gameplay loop I studied office building schematics and blueprints to make a an early draft of what the basic layout would be

I ported over most of the framework to UE5 and made broke down the zombie meshes in blender to customize material slots. Using the drawn map as a material on a plane, I built the basic blockout on top.

Once the basic layout was in place, work began on designing new mechanics, weapons and systems that fit in thematically to hone in on the gameplay loop/game feel I was trying to achieve. Below is a showcase of all the systems/mechanics I designed

After the core gameplay loop was mostly finalized. I began replacing the blockout with assets from the framework and an office themed asset pack. Each floor was divided into encounters which had to retain its office aesthetic while also introducing the player to new mechanics or multiple paths for the player. 

And finally, after lots of playtesting I created a points system, to encourage the player to be aggressive, push forward and look for creative ways of dealing with foes. This arcade style of gameplay married well with the flow of combat and music - huge thanks for David Johnson for the music and 3 voice lines!

Assets/mechanics I didn't create: Easy combat finisher (moves player and target together and plays 2 animations synced), Blood niagara vfx, Ultra volumetrics (fog), first person hammer animations (axe attack animations), creature anims (crawling zombie). The remaining animations were sourced via mixamo and the cg spectrum framework with editing done by myself.