LAW 56

Game Synopsis

A 4-player hockey brawler party game. Players control a hockey player that plays a futuristic version of ice hockey in a non-traditional arena. They must batter the opponents around the rink, score goals, and lead their team to victory.   

Level Design

My role in the team working on Law 56 is that of primarily the Writer and Level Designer. Regarding Level Design, I create arenas for the game which, over everything, flow well. While these assetless screenshots don't paint the prettiest picture, the design behind them enables players to engage in the intended gameplay loop of Law 56 without frustration or confusion. The arenas intend to challenge the players to utilise all of the mechanic the movement system has to offer while still allowing players of all skill levels to traverse the arena in trouble-free ways.

During early playtesting, it was found to be that designing the stages to accommodate every skill level would be done through creating multiple methods for a player to reach their intended destination - this would be through various movement pads, grind rails and static ramps. While this benefits the lower skill bracket of players, it also proves to provide flow for all players in the heat of a match.

As this is an ongoing project, iterations to the level design mantras of Law 56 are still evolving to provide players with the most exciting and fair experience possible.

Writing

As the writer for Law 56, I'm also tasked with breathing narrative life into it's world. This is also an ongoing task which is being created in the form of a World Bible.

This is an excerpt from the world-premise introduction;

"It’s the year 2108 and, for the past couple decades, a more violent offshoot of traditional Ice Hockey has been in rising traction due to the increasingly sterile nature of the base sport and a society which hankers for more. Appropriately named ‘Combat Hockey’, this game sees players engage in the same game of scoring traditional Hockey goals while enduring the environment of unorthodox arenas, advanced technology and constant physical bombardment from other players.

History of the sport dates back to the early-2070’s where underground rings of the sport began forming primarily across various Asian countries and Canadian provinces. These underground versions of the sport were very primitive and often weren’t bound by the use of ice skates as seen in modern iterations of the game, but more so the violent nature of the game. Communities would scrounge together what they could, often using roller skates as ice wasn’t often available and repurposing areas such as skate parks, abandoned ice rinks and warehouses to serve as arena grounds for the matches.

During these formative years, the sport was strictly played among the working class as a means of blowout against the humdrum of modern life and civil regulation. But as the sport grew in popularity through word of mouth and guerilla broadcasting, it wouldn’t take long for a string-puller behind the societal veil to devise a way of tugging at the reins and making money while doing so. Knowing how important the sport had become to the proletariat meant that instead of having the sport banned outright, global authorities set out to commercialise it. Sponsorships and company interferences followed as restrictions of a required licence to legally play the sport was implemented. Matches not organised by institutions with licences would be shut down immediately and persons involved would be fined heavily by authorities - but this was common practice with a number of aspects of modern life undergoing similar cycles.

With the sport integrated into the mainstream, an international league was founded in the year 2083 - the International Combat Hockey Association (ICHA). Some players who’d made a name for themselves felt obliged to continue and create a career through the league, while others jumped ship immediately claiming the sport’s engulfment by companies and sponsorships goes against the very essence of the game.

It’s now the 25th anniversary of the league and you, the players, are set to compete in another year of commercialised ultraviolence and slippery athleticism. So let’s meet the poor sods involved;"