Double Shoulders

Platformer & Puzzle in a horror setting

Double Shoulders is the final year project I worked on. We were a team of 3 Game Designers, 3 Game Programmers and 3 Game Artists .

Gameplay video of the final project

Steam link

What was my role?

Lead level designer
Lead game designer

What was my work during pre-production?

Establish a common vision of the project and ensure that it is respected throughout production
Design of the main mechanics with the other game designers
Production, gameplay integration and quality monitoring of game levels
Close collaboration with the level artist to ensure good consistency between gameplay and level art
Managing scope and production with other leads and the producer
Management of two game designers

Skills acquired

This project represents the culmination of my five years of study at Rubika. For the team and myself, it has been a rich learning experience, allowing us to develop our skills while pushing a project to a level of quality and quantity of content that we have never had the opportunity to achieve before.

This production taught me:

The importance of establishing a realistic scope and knowing how to keep it flexible for the good of the production and the team.
Collaboration with other leads to define a precise production plan, adapted to the team, and making the best use of each person's skills.
To remove the management burden from my pole so that it can concentrate on the production of the game
To maintain a clear vision throughout production and ensure that it is shared and understood by all team members.

This project allowed me to strengthen:

Managing the pace and progression curve of levels.
The staging.
My knowledge of the Unreal Engine and its tools.
Engaging level design, blending gameplay, staging and environmental storytelling.
Complex decision-making in the interest of production.

Some images of my work during this production

Pre-production process

The next section will focus on the pre-production of the project. In my eyes, this phase deserves as much attention as the production itself, not only because of its fundamental importance, but also for the wealth of lessons it has brought me. These lessons have played a key role in achieving the current level of quality of Double Shoulders.

End of pre-production gameplay video

What was my job during pre-production?

Define a common vision of the project
Design of the main mechanics with other game designers
Implementation of metrics and level design standards
Macro Level design
Design of a 5 minute game segment
Setting up the graphical integration workflow with the level artist
Management of the GD team

Skills acquired during pre-production

This project is my first "long" pre-production experience, it allowed me to do a lot of iterations and to deepen as much as possible many concepts that we tended to quickly finish due to lack of time to carry out the projects . With the Game Designer team we were able to implement many new methodologies and push the quality of our work to the maximum.

This pre-production taught me:

The use of user stories to derive mechanics and game situations
Better collaborate with 3C programmers to implement precise metrics
Deepen my macro vision of game production:
- Implementation of a macro level to allow easy iteration on an already established base
- Think a lot more about the evolution of mechanics and their integration into the levels during the experience
- Pose a clear vision of the challenges and objectives for the entire experience
- Have strong staging intentions linked to the narrative
Push my collaboration with level artists further by implementing design intentions in the blocking phase
Use Unreal Engine's level sequencer to create "fake gameplay" to test unique interactions on a level without having to ask programmers
Deepen my knowledge in the Unreal Engine
Manage a team of Game Designers by providing a vision to follow and ensuring that it is respected
Collaborate with leads from other divisions to define production objectives