Joel Thomas

player is powerless

In EoME, players find themselves trapped in a cartoonish prison without the lethal power needed to escape, followed by a hulking-purple-AI-gargoyle, Moe, who smashes everything in sight.

The game’s systems are designed to reinforce a theme of feeling Powerless:

• Taunt the gargoyle — causing him to charge and smash you if you don’t move away in time!

• Dash to avoid Moe’s vengeance — while leveraging his awesome destructive power

• (Un)Friendly Fire! — No paladin or player is safe from Moe’s physicality and stray arrows

• Stone Gargoyle — Moe’s contact with a light-pixie triggers his immediate transformation to stone (he’s a gargoyle, get it?)

Prototype to polish

I prototyped the core game loop and “Level 1” as a proof of concept/tech to align the team on the vision of the game. It served as a tremendous boost to team morale right from the get-go, and helped us to start production off on the right foot.

Other prototyped mechanics seen here:

• Gargoyle AI state machine — Following, Smashing, Charging, Stoned, Idle

• Gargoyle and enemy navigation systems — Built using the Unity NavMesh tool

• Player controller — Dash for quick speed, Shoot a spitball to stun Paladins, and Taunt Moe for a charge

• Gargoyle turn to stone near pixies

• Enemy Pixies, Swordsmen, Archers and Defenders — Random bounded movement, follow and attack, aim at player

Orlando iX

We took the game to a convention called Orlando iX, where we were featured at an indie booth to a positive reception. We used this opportunity to gather feedback to be implemented later, and built credibility among future peers for the development of MasterKey.

VIsual Design

Cartoonish — Whacky — Hectic

EoME intentionally depicts a ‘lighter’ interpretation of the Powerless theme, using cartoonish and whacky visuals to emphasize the game’s hectic tone.

I was constantly in communication with the Art Lead to help define and drive alignment on the games visuals, using mood boards and references from other games.

I defined the big-picture pacing and rhythm of gameplay in collaboration with the Level Designer by visually charting the intended difficulty between each encounter and level. and with the Art Lead to help define visual direction using mood boards and reference from other games.