EscarGO

EscarGO is a fast-paced tongue-in-cheek first person shooter that centers around the romantic rivalry of two French restaurants preparing for opening night. Players control French chefs preparing escargot for Pierre Bleu or Girard Rouge, but must first capture its main ingredient, snails, in the game's unique capture the flag variant, Boil.

Project Details

  • 3D Multiplayer First Person Shooter
  • Unreal Development Kit
  • C++ Code
  • 8 person team (1 producer, 3 artists, 1 level designer, 3 programmers)
  • 2 Month Development Period

Design Goals

This was a unique experience as it was my first time joining two teams both of which were already in the middle of production (the other team being the one working on Battle of the Banderas). In mid production, the overall design and mechanics of the game were already solidified so I turned my focus towards a set of tasks that neither team had touched yet, the removal of UDK default sounds. This allowed me to work on both games, keeping a written log of all classes I extended and where in the project I replaced the sound variables that contained the default sounds.

In EscarGO, I kept open communication with the producer on what I was working and touched base with the programming lead whenever there was any Perforce file conflicts.

What I Worked On
  • Assisted in final polish and bug fixing for second half of production
  • Recorded and edited announcer dialogue, both in English and French
  • Edited and implemented sounds while removing UDK default sounds
  • Worked on this and Battle of the Banderas concurrently

Postmortem

What Went Well

  • Open communication between teams allowed both teams to share resources to handle similar problems such as UI.
  • Single flag capture style and overall gameplay speed established early.
  • Programmers and producer stepped up to handle sound and UI due to lack of level designers.

What Went Wrong

  • Folder structure was a mess. Everything was in the same generic folder.
  • Art style was not a style the artists were familiar with and the lack of experience led to longer hours required to complete assets.
  • Weapon balance was not considered until late in development.

What Was Learned

  • UI is important to establish early.
  • Unbalanced mechanics can lead to mechanics being ignored and wasted hours.
  • It is important to design a game based off the strengths of the team.