R.E.M. | Jcorsiart

Game Designer: Chris Kim

Level Design: Bethany Yao, Chris Kim

Programming: KZ [Shitao] Zhou

Artist(s): Julia Corsi, Lamesha Coley

Project Stakeholder: Jeff Cavitt

RESPONSIBLE FOR:

Concept Art
Puzzle Nodes
Game UI
Start Menu, Lvl Select
Animation

Art Direction
Playtesting (QA)
SCRUM
Documentation

Development Info

Position: Lead Artist

Engine: Unity3D

Genre: 2D Puzzle

Dev Team: 5

Timeframe: 3 months (Sept. '18 - Nov. '18)

REM is a 2D Puzzle game created in Unity with a team of 5 devs over a 3 month period.

During the production of R.E.M., I was responsible for creating the Start Menu, the Level Select menu, Stage backgrounds for Levels 1 & 2, as well as the puzzle nodes (seen above) and the Gear UI.

The setting of the game takes place in an abandoned steampunk city called Ashburrow. You take on the role of REM, a repurposed war robot, and repair the broken machinery as you traverse the city. The narrative mechanics of the level backgrounds affects the state of the Level Select Screen, which slowly begins to light up as you progress.

Stage 1 Background: The Stage 1 background is the power generator. Upon completing each puzzle within this stage, the power is restored in Ashburrow and the player can progress

Stage 2 Background: The Stage 2 background is the boiler. Upon completing each puzzle within this stage, the water system begins to run again.

AConcept_Stage3ClockTowerBG PAINTOVER.pn

Stage 3 Background: First, this was a paintover of the other artist's first pass. This was done mostly for the sake of time and completion. The Stage 3 background is the clocktower. Upon completion, the clocktower will tick again.

Drones

The drones played a vital role in aiding our game mechanics and core loops.

I was responsible for animating their crash states.

Round drone

The round drone is one of the playable characters in our games' puzzles.

Concept by Lamesha Coley

Base Sprite by Lamesha Coley

Tech Specs:

Frames: 6

Dimensions:

Square Drone

The square drone is one of the playable characters in our games' puzzles.

Concept by Lamesha Coley

Base Sprite by Lamesha Coley

Tech Specs:

Frames: 6

Dimensions:

Puzzle Nodes

The puzzle nodes went through the most iteration during development, as we wanted something that would convey the ideas of 'machinery', 'steampunk', 'industrial', etc. that would also have visual conveyance to the player.

These nodes were the first (top) and final (bottom) passes of the Start & End nodes. We wanted to do something clever and have the nodes represent a socket and a plug, but without losing detail or muddy conveyance.

UI Layout

I was responsible for the UI layout. During development, we all agreed on wanting a simple UI versus a complicated UI -- one so it didn't overlap with the puzzles and obscure anything, but also because we wanted to keep the player from having to think too much about where things are on top of solving puzzles.

In-Game

Concepting

Meet REM, the unseen main character of R.E.M. and the role that the player takes on during gameplay.

When I designed REM, I wanted to remain in the realms of Steampunk. I spent a good amount of time researching various steampunk sources, such as Katsuhiro Otomo's Cannon Fodder, as well as titles like Nier: Automata (2017), both of which had strong steampunk and industrial-punk settings.

We wanted him to be streamlined enough to maneuver the streets without trouble, but clunky enough to require the assistance of his drones to repair machinery.

Post-mortem

What Went Well:

Communication with all members on dev team
Staying on task and meeting milestones effectively
Art Style was relatively consistent throughout production and really came together towards the end
Teamwork & wanting to get a functioning game

What Went WRONG:

Not enough communication early on
Blurring of defined roles (too many cooks in one kitchen type)
Time management issues. Always ended up working overtime
Didn't fully utilize all the tools we had available to us
Lack of Artist integration with assets

What I learned:

Improved communication across disciplines will help projects go faster
Ask questions early & often if you don't understand fully what's going on
Build your game often for playtesting DURING production
The importance of RACI charts
Rapid development skills for game design

Documentation

REM_Post-Mortem_FULL

REM_VisualDevDoc

Development Info

Position: Lead Artist

Engine: Unity3D

Genre: 2D Puzzle

Dev Team: 5

Timeframe: 3 months (Sept. '18 - Nov. '18)

​

REM is a 2D Puzzle game created in Unity with a team of 5 devs over a 3 month period.

During the production of R.E.M., I was responsible for creating the Start Menu, the Level Select menu, Stage backgrounds for Levels 1 & 2, as well as the puzzle nodes (seen above) and the Gear UI.

Stage 1 Background: The Stage 1 background is the power generator. Upon completing each puzzle within this stage, the power is restored in Ashburrow and the player can progress

Stage 2 Background: The Stage 2 background is the boiler. Upon completing each puzzle within this stage, the water system begins to run again.

Stage 3 Background: First, this was a paintover of the other artist's first pass. This was done mostly for the sake of time and completion. The Stage 3 background is the clocktower. Upon completion, the clocktower will tick again.

Drones

The drones played a vital role in aiding our game mechanics and core loops.

​

I was responsible for animating their crash states.

Round drone

The round drone is one of the playable characters in our games' puzzles.

Concept by Lamesha Coley

Base Sprite by Lamesha Coley

​

Tech Specs:

Frames: 6

Dimensions:

Square Drone

The square drone is one of the playable characters in our games' puzzles.

Concept by Lamesha Coley

Base Sprite by Lamesha Coley

​

Tech Specs:

Frames: 6

Dimensions:

Puzzle Nodes

The puzzle nodes went through the most iteration during development, as we wanted something that would convey the ideas of 'machinery', 'steampunk', 'industrial', etc. that would also have visual conveyance to the player.

These nodes were the first (top) and final (bottom) passes of the Start & End nodes. We wanted to do something clever and have the nodes represent a socket and a plug, but without losing detail or muddy conveyance.

UI Layout

In-Game

Concepting

Meet REM, the unseen main character of R.E.M. and the role that the player takes on during gameplay.

​

When I designed REM, I wanted to remain in the realms of Steampunk. I spent a good amount of time researching various steampunk sources, such as Katsuhiro Otomo's Cannon Fodder, as well as titles like Nier: Automata (2017), both of which had strong steampunk and industrial-punk settings.

We wanted him to be streamlined enough to maneuver the streets without trouble, but clunky enough to require the assistance of his drones to repair machinery.

Post-mortem

What Went Well:

Communication with all members on dev team

Staying on task and meeting milestones effectively

Art Style was relatively consistent throughout production and really came together towards the end

Teamwork & wanting to get a functioning game

What Went WRONG:

Not enough communication early on

Blurring of defined roles (too many cooks in one kitchen type)

Time management issues. Always ended up working overtime

Didn't fully utilize all the tools we had available to us

Lack of Artist integration with assets

What I learned:

Improved communication across disciplines will help projects go faster

Ask questions early & often if you don't understand fully what's going on

Build your game often for playtesting DURING production

The importance of RACI charts

Rapid development skills for game design

Documentation