Smash Ball
Employer: Game Pill
Roles: Game design, writing, documentation, media development, QA testing, balance
Smash Ball is an upcoming competitive action sports title for PC. Customize your mech athlete and conquer your opponents by score or destruction in fast-paced matches - locally or online.
I came onto the project partway through (as part of an internship), and had an active role in its development for about 2 years.
Check out the gameplay! ↑
Design Process
Research is always the first step, especially when designing for a genre that isn't familiar to me. Sports games aren't my forte, so I always gathered reference material when doing design work for Smash Ball.
After that, I tended to start with a rough sketch and/or written outline of the feature or concept that I was tasked with creating.
Beginning with pen & paper helps me kick off and quickly explore a few options before committing to anything that I might not be happy with.
The next step is usually to create a digital mockup of how the feature might look in-game.
This is typically a screenshot that I add on to. Not always pretty, but with enough information to get the idea across.
Not all features require this, especially if they are data-intensive (or if they don't need to be presented to the team).
Last but certainly not least is diving into the nitty-gritty details of whatever it is I'm working on.
Once the concept has been approved, I start getting into all the technical details and working with programmers to ensure they can implement it successfully.
This is probably my favourite part of the process because I really get to flex my designer muscles and come up with hard data that can actually be tested and iterated upon.
Accomplishments
Since my work on the game began, I have:
-
Designed 4 major, complex features that have been either fully or partially implemented
-
Designed 3+ minor features or statistical balance changes that have been implemented
-
Designed a system of player progression and rewards
-
Taken notes on potential ways to improve existing game elements in the future
-
Created informative videos to show off features to publishers & investors
-
Managed and run livestreams to show off gameplay
-
Collaborated with artists, programmers, QA testers, students, streamers, and more to help make the game successful
Steam Page
Check out the game on Steam here and try the demo if you'd like!