TOPENG TAB | celinechen

about the game

TOPENG

DESCRIPTION

Topeng is a 3D action strategy game with a day and night system. The high concept is "Farmer by day, Fighter by night", where players need to plant and strategize the position and type of crops during the day and make use of those crops to fight against monsters that attack the farm at night. Topeng's theme is inspired by the culture of Indonesia.

ROLE
Co-Producer | Level Designer I Environment Artist

Collaborated with 1 other game designer, 6 programmers and 3 artists
Managed the team on design and art
Worked on custom engine
Prototyping and building of levels
Integrating game assets and animated events into the level
Designing and balancing mechanics
Designed systems with Lead Designer
Created all environment art assets and animations

DURATION

September 2018 - April 2019

TEAM SIZE

RAPID PROTOTYPING

Prototyping the game with the lead designer in Unity 3D before confirmation of the game idea and porting it over to the custom engine.

Custom engine

Porting the game over from Unity 3D and working in a custom engine made from scratch by our programmers.

CHALLENGES

As the co-producer and level designer, some of the challenges that I encountered included:

Managing a huge team of 11 with the Producer.
Ensuring that every team member is aware of their tasks and are on the same page as the designers and artists.
Conveying ideas and tasks to the artists and constantly showing them the game in the custom engine to allow them to have a better idea in terms of art.
Planning out inter-dependencies of the mechanics in the game with the Lead Designer.
Making sure that the player and boss damage is balanced.
Balancing abilities of crops so that they will help combat only to a certain extent.
Balancing the currency in the game.
Brainstorming for ideas to make the level more interesting, yet doesn't hinder the boss fights which requires an arena-style level.
Always keeping the theme and setting of the game in mind - while building the environment, designing crops, mechanics, enemies and bosses.
Making the environment feel alive.
Pacing the game in terms of difficulty, flow and engagement.

Download

AWARDS

about the game

TOPENG

RAPID PROTOTYPING

Prototyping the game with the lead designer in Unity 3D before confirmation of the game idea and porting it over to the custom engine.

Custom engine

Porting the game over from Unity 3D and working in a custom engine made from scratch by our programmers.

CHALLENGES

As the co-producer and level designer, some of the challenges that I encountered included:

Managing a huge team of 11 with the Producer.

Ensuring that every team member is aware of their tasks and are on the same page as the designers and artists.

Conveying ideas and tasks to the artists and constantly showing them the game in the custom engine to allow them to have a better idea in terms of art.

Planning out inter-dependencies of the mechanics in the game with the Lead Designer.

Making sure that the player and boss damage is balanced.

Balancing abilities of crops so that they will help combat only to a certain extent.

Balancing the currency in the game.

Brainstorming for ideas to make the level more interesting, yet doesn't hinder the boss fights which requires an arena-style level.

Always keeping the theme and setting of the game in mind - while building the environment, designing crops, mechanics, enemies and bosses.

Making the environment feel alive.

Pacing the game in terms of difficulty, flow and engagement.

AWARDS