Wake From Death is an ability-based 3rd-person shooter that takes place in a Traditional Japanese Cyberpunk setting. I served as Creative Director and Design Lead on this project; thus I was responsible for maintaining a cohesive vision and leading our team of designers throughout the project.
Because I’ve had this game idea for a while, I created the bulk of the documentation for the project. This includes the original pitch, 2-Page Design document, Art Style Guide, and Game Design Document.
The most challenging part of this project was the frequently changing team size. While we were prepared for the team to grow after each pre-prototype milestone, two of our original members left the team after prototype. Despite gaining 8 new members to meet the necessary team size, the loss of some of the initial team was an unforeseen hindrance. However, the other leads and I reevaluated the scope of our project to match the new team skillset and composition, enabling the team to successfully complete the project.
As design lead, I both built level 2 myself and assisted another level designer in their creation of the first level. One of our greatest level design challenges was orienting the player in our brightly emissive world. To solve this we used a consistent visual language with the color yellow acting as a guide, subtly leading the player through levels.
Download and play the game here: Wake From Death