Cartastroph!
The game
Role: Lead game designer and 3D artist.
"Super Smash Bros meets bumper cars".
Cartastroph! is a party game intended for 2-4 players.
I designed a simple, fun and chaotic experience, that would be easy to learn, and a map that's fun to experiment around.
The level design took advantage of the game's 3D nature; by adding holes the players can fall through, and ramps to let the players jump, I provided the level with difficulty and complexity in the absence of platforms (unlike Super Smash Bros).
To create further chaos, I added mushrooms that act as "pinball pop bumpers";
these mushrooms successfully incorporated a punishing mechanism - being extremely effective against players who are too reckless, and added an element of unpredictability.
The process
Cartastroph! is a game born from one of the courses
I took during my studies in Tiltan.
We had one semester to come up with a game.
The design had to be rooted in the limitations;
not too many people had time to work on the project, and the overall time given wasn't too long.
I made the game design customisable:
I could design elements, knowing the game would work with or without them,
and then prioritise these through relevance to the gameplay and time or difficulty to complete.
The level design proved to be the most interesting task in this project.
The layout itself was the only thing I could take for granted to enter the final version of the game;
I had to make it roomy enough for future elements and obstacles we might be able to add.
I took inspirations from "Nutty motorcars", "King of Opera", "Super Smash Bros" & pinball machines.
