Into The Frontier
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Group Project (6 members)
Unreal Engine 5
Blueprints
Team leader, Game and Level Designer
Created in 6 weeks
Into the Frontier is a game I created for my Prototype Game Development class at AAU with 5 other students. Our class voted and selected the highest voted game pitches, and my idea for the game, "Into the Frontier", was chosen as one of the projects. Into the Frontier is a 3D sci-fi survival game where the player gets their ship shot down by aliens and crash lands on an unknown planet, and the player has to find a way to repair their ship to escape. I served as the project leader, using software like Asana to assign team member responsibilities and to keep the group on track on a week-to-week basis. I was also the principle game designer, collaborating with my teammates to discuss the best features and accomplishable tasks for our allotted project timeframe. I was also a level designer and minor scripter on this project, creating most of the in-game cutscenes and designing the starting area and ending areas of the level.
My Contributions
Click on the to expand sections for more details
Game Designer
I came up with the original game pitch for "Into the Frontier", taking inspiration from other sci-fi games like "No Man's Sky" when I was brainstorming the original concept. I also took inspiration from other survival games like "Son's of the Forest" and "Subnautica" when thinking about implementing a crafting system, and a hunger and thirst system. I was in charge of managing the game design document and giving each game design student a section to work on. Myself and the other 2 designers in the group collaborated over Discord to decide which features and direction would be best for the game and what would be feasible given our project time constraint.
Game Pitch Document
Game Design Document
Systems Design
I designed the concepts of the 2 major systems in the game, crafting and hunger/thirst. I wanted the player to have to explore the environment and discover resources that the player could use to craft items that would help them survive. I also wanted hunger and thirst to always be a resource the player had to manage. I collaborated with the other students on the systems specifics, like resource type and what items could be crafted and used by the player. I helped with some of the scripting requirements but another student was our primary scripter on this project.
Crafting System
Level Designer
When it came to level design me and another student split up the level design requirements. We both created our own top-down maps and decided to level design our separate areas to the level. I wanted to create the starting "tutorial" area of the game that would contain low amounts of threats but serve to guide the player into the core mechanics like scavenging for food and water, and interacting with the environment to progress forward. I also designed the final area of the level we called the "alien bunker". This area was an entirely underground final area that housed one of the "special crafting parts" required to escape, and contained multiple alien threats the player would have to deal with.
Tutorial Area Level Design
Alien Bunker Level Design
Scripting
I did a little bit of scripting on this project, mostly involving cutscenes made using Unreal's sequencer and basic level blueprints to run important environmental events. I helped our primary scripter when needed, and also helped with our objective based system, and picking up items.
Scripting Contributions
Team Leader Responsibilities
Being the team leader of this project I was responsible for making sure every group member was on track to deliver their assets on the week I needed them. We used Asana to organize team member responsibilities and workload. I worked closely with my environment artists to bring my "Mysterious Alien Planet" theme to life. I kept everyone on track by communicating through discord, and making sure no one's work on the project was ever lost. I was very proud of what my group was able to create in about 6 weeks and working on this project was one of the highlights of my time at AAU.