Technical Designer / Gameplay Programmer,
Help Is On The Way

Help Is On The Way is a sci-fi security simulation game in which you play as a security officer who must use her rickety systems to guide her coworker through the mining facliity where they work while protecting him from an alien monster.

Made in Unity

Vancouver Film School GD75 Final Project
  • Ben Spratt - Project Manager, Audio Programmer
  • Bennie Khadem - 3D Environment Artist, Animator
  • Evan Oldham - 3D Character Artist / Prop Artist / 2D Artist
  • Samuel de Paiva - Technical Designer, Gameplay Programmer
  • Wesley Yuen - Technical Designer, Gameplay Programmer, Technical Artist
  • Yuki Hu - Level Designer, UI Programmer
Check out the demo here!
Prototyping
Non-interactive Sequences
Other cool stuff!

Rapid Prototyping

The Problem

Our game consists of many unique and wacky mechanics, many of them are unproven in terms of game feel.

For example, how should the player switch views between the monitors and the rest of the terminal? While we intend for the player to look back and forth as part of our gameplay pillar of "Divided Attention", the monitors are the only way to interface with Conor and players might feel cheated if information are restricted unfairly.

The Solution

As a technical designer, I prototyped a lot of the core mechanics in the game early AND quickly (within days): from the monitors to the crank, from levers to signing pads. Then I would present the prototype to the team, asking them for feedback and observing their playthroughs. Through this process, we were able to create a ranking of the mechanics by "fun-ness", allowing us to narrow down on the unqiue game feel and prioritize the core features that we ended up with.

Non-Interactive Sequences

The Problem

In our game, a lot of things happen at the same time. So what if the player misses something crucial to their playthrough that we want them to see?

We also want the system to be designer-friendly so they can change or add without requiring help from programmers.

The Solution

To make sure players don't miss certain gameplay moments, I designed and implemented a non-interactive sequence system, where player control will be taken away and the first person camera will be controlled by the system instead.

Sequences are implemented using timelines to allow designers to easily tweak the timings of events. The system listens to event to trigger specific sequences, allowing this system to be decoupled from other gameplay systems. Using Unity's Playables, multiple custom tracks are also created to support custom behaviors during the sequence, e.g. panning or zooming FPS camera, running coroutines and triggering other events

Non-interactive sequence in Timeline

Other Cool Stuff!

Shaders and VFX

Not only do shaders and VFX add to the immersiveness of the game world, they also provide immediate visual feedback that works along other feedback systems, to ensure players understands the result of their actions.

Implemented using Unity's ShaderGraph, Visual Effect Graph and EmberGen

Implemented rocket exhaust, liquid nitrogen, sparks and smoke VFX with EmberGen for the rocket sequence
Implemented custom pass shader for camera feed transition effect
Implemented sparks and electricity VFX for the crank
Implemented air puffs and sparks VFX for the bellows

Narrative Animations

The purposes of these cinematics are to both convey the narrative and the overall tone of the game, mostly without dialogues. Therefore, I try to make sure the animation, at the very least align with the narrative and tone, if not adding more to them.

For example having multiple layers of door shutting in front of Kassandra adds to the world-building of the corporation and how the higher ups are treated differently. It also brings a slight humorous tone to the end of the cinematics, and the final shot links perfectly to the gameplay (match cut)

Intro Cinematics
Outro Cinematics

Amazing 2D Art by Evan Oldham