ARMAN AZMIL.
Level Design | Gameplay Implementation
The Show Must Go On!
Design Lead / Gameplay Scripter
PLATFORM
Windows 7 & up
ENGINE & LANGUAGE
SuchEngine, C++ & Lua
DURATION
30 Weeks
TEAM SIZE
5
DESCRIPTION
The Show Must Go On! is a 2D Party-Stealth-Brawler-Multiplayer-Platformer where players take the role of stagehands whose goal is to ensure that the play is a raving success by keeping the audience happy and foiling on-stage sabotage, all while avoiding the spotlights.
CONTRIBUTION
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Designed and implemented 3 of the game's 5 main story levels in a custom editor with logic written in Lua.
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Implemented a cut-scene manager in Lua.
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Implemented other various game mechanics in Lua.
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Implemented a couple of custom editor features, including the GameObject inspector using ImGUI, as well as an Undo/redo system. Both done in C++.
THE DESIGN PROCESS​
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As the Design Lead for the project, the goal that was set was to create the experience that the players were actually helping on the set of an ongoing play. As such, the game's main levels have an "on-rails" structure, with a set sequence of events to play out at specific times, much like a real theater play would.
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​Given that the time span of the project was only 30 weeks, instead of having to create new lore for a play of our own, we decided to adapt the classic fable "Little Red Riding Hood" as the central play which all the game's main levels are based on, with our own added twists.
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For the main story levels, we wanted there to be this aspect of "Competitive Cooperation", which was achieved through players wanting to clear the level by completing objectives, at the same time making them want to be the one who actually achieves it and gets the points.
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To make the game accessible, we kept the players move-set small, with each move having a clear association with a mechanic. For instance, the "kick" move is universally applied to all interactable objects in the game that revolve around foiling on-stage sabotage.
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We wanted to portray the game as a wacky fun time for friends and family to play with each other for a good time, which lead us to the flashy and crazy on stage effects and the outlined-cartoon art style seen in the game.