The Game:

Synergy is a 4-player cooperative first-person shooter set in a computer-simulated world filled with geometrically shaped enemies. You and 3 of your friends are dropped into the game, spread out, and left to fend for yourselves. Your task is to work with the rest of your team to regroup and defeat each boss at the center of each maze and progress through each level.

Each player has a unique ability paired with a certain class-type. The classes range from:

• Close Quarters: wields a shotgun and has the ability to throw down a healing ring that heals all players in its vicinity.

• Assault: wields a rifle and has the ability to launch a tether to other players that destroys any enemies caught between the line.

• Grenadier: lobs grenades and has the ability to launch a one, giant grenade with a time-slowing area of effect.

• Assassin: throws ninja stars and has the ability to launch a barrage of stars to wipe out a group of enemies.

Work together and coordinate with each other’s abilities to stave off the horde of enemies and conquer each boss.

MY ROLE:

Level Designer, 3-D Modeler, Animator

The Process:

Designing Synergy definitely was a milestone for me as a game artist and learning to work in a larger game development team. The original idea for the game was to be a 4 player co-operative multi-leveled dungeon crawler shooter game, complete with skill trees, inventory systems, and accompanying lore. However, due to time restraints and no real defined direction for the game, the entire project was met with roadblocks throughout the entirety of development.

My main objective here was to decide on the look and feel of the game. This was my first attempt at a 3-D based game, I chose to follow a geometric-inspired art style. This would allow the other game artist on my team, along with myself, to create enemies and environment as low-poly 3-D models. This choice made rigging and texturing much easier as a result while simultaneously planting the beginning roots of the bigger story: 4 players whom are transported into a retro-futuristic simulation, where they are forced to find each other and fight together to survive and discover more of this simulated world. I really wanted to emphasize a lesson I had learned while working on previous game projects: the art and design should influence and work hand-in-hand with the gameplay.

I primarily employed the use of Maya 3D to sculpt, paint skin weights, rig, and texture every model I generated. I regularly used Photoshop and Illustrator to draw 2-D stances of each object. I would then import these 2-D stances into Maya to assist in the creation of the 3-D model (as a visual reference). As for the animations, I made use of Adobe’s Mixamo animation library. The player model, for example, was imported into Mixamo where I assigned the proper joints to the model. From there, I was able to add any animation available by Mixamo and export that animation as an .fbx file to use in Unity. I created walk, run, crouch, and jump cycles for the player model as a result.

Here is the Trello page detailing this Synergy’s development process.