Two of Parts
A team project (9 members) made in Unreal Engine 5 in four months.
Overview
what is Two of parts?
Two of Parts is a blackjack/gambling card game (A.K.A. "casino simulator") with exploration and narrative mechanics. The game was developed and submitted by our team, High Rollers, for our GAM-255 semester-long project.
Story Snyopsis:
In a cyber-neon, post-apocalyptic world, Ace, a robotic ferret, must delve into the depths of the mighty Chimera Casino to find his lover, Jack. To do so, he must beat the house at their own game: taking a risk.
Two of Parts Trailer:
Gameplay Mechanics:
Blackjack Card game -
A fully-implemented Blackjack card game system with real 3D cards used in a deck that is randomly shuffled each round.
Gambling/chip system -
A gambling chip system used in conjunction with blackjack to force players to pay to play, but reward them if they succeed.
Custom blackjack deck -
A customizable deck system, allowing players the chance to modify their odds of winning a game of blackjack.​
Casino Store -
A casino store that stores narrative progression items such as Jack's parts or keycards, and the option to sell parts of yourself to gain chips at the risk of you losing the game.
My Role
PRIMARY ROLES On
High Rollers:
Level designer -
The main job I had on High Rollers was to plan and design essentially all of the levels we wanted to make for Two of Parts.
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This complimented the teams dynamics since I was the primary advocate for making the space of the game much larger than just a stationary game of blackjack, thus, I should be in charge of seeing that come to fruition.
Design pRODUCER -
Another role I had on High Rollers was acting as a producer for our design department, while there was another producer for the art department.
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My role as a producer was less being a "manager" for the team, and more of being a "leader". What I mean is that I spent less time managing tasks and deadlines and served more as an arbiter or "people-person" for the team.
I did this by keeping our heads levelled when planning, settling any disputes or miscommunications team members had, and making sure teammates felt comfortable with the team they were on and enjoyed working on the project.
My design process:
Exterior Planning -
Above is an early sketch I made to get an idea of what the exterior space of Two of Parts would be. Initially, the player was meant to start not too far from the Chimera Casino, as the exterior was not the main focus of the core gameplay. Using this sketch, I began making a rough blockout of the exterior level.
early Exterior bLOCKOUT -
Above was early progress on the exterior blockout. When I began designing the level, I started by making a landscape and sculpting it to imitate the concept of a desolate dune. I did this because we needed a foundation to build the level off of, but also chose to make a dune since our vision was to make the exterior a "post-apocalyptic" wasteland that invoked bleakness and loneliness.
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At the time, I made a few important landmarks for visual clarity, like a rough idea of what the Chimera Casino looked like, the underpass the player would cross over, the tunnel connecting to the underpass, and the long road the player would walk as they approach the casino.
(First floor) Interior Planning -
Here we have an early sketch-out of the first floor/level of the Chimera Casino for the interior. For visual clarity: "Elevator to 2nd floor" was meant to take the player to the second LEVEL, while the "2nd floor" is meant to be a balcony within the first level that adds a level of verticality to the space.
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I wanted the player to enter via the alleyway instead of the front entrance to invoke that sense of feeling unwelcome or uninvited to the casino, and that they're only way in was to go behind the casino's back to enter.
Above was one of the main pictures I used for inspiration when planning the layout of the first floor. The main aspect I noticed when studying casino architecture is their choice in pathing by routing the customers straight through the many gambling games before reaching the other end of the casino. This is very intentional as the customers get a preview of the many options available to them and the possibilities of winning big if they choose the right game.
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Because of this observation, I made sure to design the path through the casino to be very inviting and beckon the player peruse through the space and choose when they would indulge in some gambling at the blackjack tables.
First floor Blockout -
Above were the first stages of blocking out the first floor for the Chimera Casino. As shown, I used the sketch religiously when setting up the basic framework of the space by sectioning out areas that would later be populated with slot machines, roulette tables, and general mingling items.
Here's more progress on the early blockout I made for the first floor. When building the staircase area, I ultimately decided to pivot from the original sketch by having an elevated platform be where the blackjack dealer would reside, and from there, have a staircase reach the top of the balcony area.
This was the late stage of the first floor blockout. Once I figured out the staircase area, I had to decide where the points of interest should go, such as the casino store, the card stores, and the high rollers' room (the room that takes players to the final level/boss).
Originally, the store was going to be placed at the top, and the high rollers at the bottom, but a teammate suggested I switch the rooms, and I found that be a lot better for the layout since it was more focal to the level than the high rollers' room.
Second floor Blockout
When playtesting an early version of the level we had, one of the pieces of feedback we received was that the first floor had a lot of open space with nothing interesting filling in that space, notably, the center area of the level.
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The image above represents the change or idea I came up with to satisfy the critique given, which was to make the elevator that accesses the second floor be directly in the middle of the level so the empty space is being taken up with something, and the elevator also serves as a focal point for the entire first floor.
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I also decided to make the roof pyramid-like and have glass panes all around it so the players could see where they had to go next and see how far they've come once they were at the second floor. The roof also allowed for some uniqueness in the elevator's design like the staircase catwalk and archway support beams.
Above is an early blockout of the second floor. The first floor is meant to be the primary location of the game, so the idea for the second floor was to keep it more simple with its general layout. With the help of our team's environment artist, Chloe, I also implemented the idea of having the catwalks above the first floor's ceiling be the suits of playing cards.
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When deciding what I was gonna do for the second floor's ceiling, I tested the simple idea of duplicating the already-unique ceiling from the first floor and just flip it upside down, and sure enough, myself and the team liked how it made the second floor look, so I managed to make an interesting area by manipulating an asset we already had instead requesting for a new ceiling.
Third floor/Interior polish -
When designing the final, third floor, I decided to take an even more simple approach to the layout by having the floor look more like a boss arena so the players really feel like it all comes to this showdown with the final dealer.
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I emphasized that feeling by placing rows of our turtle bodyguards along the sides of the catwalk, and adding fireworks all around the empty open space so it added to the "finale" feeling of the floor.
After the third floor was laid out, most of the work beyond that for me was helping our environment artist with the set dressing, texturing, and tweaks to the architecture. When helping in that department, I tried my best to take anything we already had made as an asset and find a way to manipulate it and use it in a different way for the environment like the 3D playing cards we had for the blackjack table and the idea to use them to signify card stores and add more decorations to the walls of the casino.
Exterior Level rework -
Leading up this point in development, I had been spending most of my time working on the interior space, so the exterior space was leaving a lot to be desired. Feedback we had received was that the traversal of the exterior space was mundane and long, so I decided to put the interior down and rework the traversal of the exterior space, by having the player spawn much farther from the town, and have to traverse through different areas to reach the casino.
The tunnel the player traverses through has a teleporter that takes them to the tunnel much closer to the casino.
From leaving the tunnel, the player then walks through a back alleyway to then arrive at the main road where they can head towards the casino.
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By this point in development, we were essentially at the end of our production timeline, so our team collectively polished any areas that needed some work and submitted the project as it was.
REFLECTION
wHAT i LEARNED:
Designer/Artist cOLLABORATION -
While I already had experience working in a team setting before this project, Two of Parts gave me a different experience than the others because of the addition of artists who also worked on the team. The projects before this one had consisted of designers and/or programmers, but no artists, which meant a lot of the visual fidelity fell upon the designers or whoever was artistic. This team, however, mostly consisted of artists (five of the nine members).
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This change made my role as the team's level designer different because instead of having sole control over the entire level as well as the environment, I had to collaborate with other artists whose job was to handle the environmental vision of the game. Initially, it was difficult because we didn't want to step on each other's domains of work, nor did we entirely understand where the level design stops, and the environment art begins.
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Eventually, however, we found a nice way to flow through development while also getting to do the work that we were best at. I would personally provide plans, blockouts, and some visual fidelity so my vision was being seen; then our environment artists would make assets I requested while also adding environment polish to the space, like texturing or set dressing.
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This collaboration allowed me to find a means of working with other people on a part of the project that I typically had full control over in previous teams. I can now recognize the value of having teammates like an environmental artist on a project since they can handle aspects of a level that aren't necessarily supposed to be a level designer's job.
Interior/Architecture design -
Two of Parts was one of the first projects I worked on that was almost entirely in an interior space. This came with a multitude of challenges to overcome, such as selling the aesthetic of an actual casino. My process for overcoming this challenge was to conduct extensive research on the interior design of real casinos via pictures on the internet. In fact, I actually went to a casino later in development to get more inspiration than just pictures (I walked out with a 10$ profit!).
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With the inspiration in mind, I designed the interior's architecture to feel grand and large to contrast with the main character's size and make them feel small. I added structures like archways, pillars, and balconies to give the casino a theme of opulence.
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Another challenge I had to overcome was that casinos are rarely stagnant in their atmosphere; there's a sense of bustling-ness to them. Initially, the Chimera Casino was planned to be abandoned, but we soon found out that our atmosphere wasn't screaming casino, as it felt too...dead. So, I suggested that we delve more deeply into that "bustling-ness" by adding more movement to our interior. Movement such as animated slot machines and roulette tables, virtual petals that rain from above, fireworks that fill out the empty space, and animations to the elevator so it caught players eye when exploring.