Studio:  4-Sided Studios
Team Size: 4
My Primary Roles: Level Designer, Technical Designer, Systems & Gameplay Programmer
My Additional Roles: Production Management, Social Media Management
Tools Used: Unity, ProBuilder, Visual Studio - C#, GitHub, Trello, Google Docs, LinkedIn, Pinterest
Timeline: October 2023 - August 2024

Responsibilities Include:

• Designed the cafe level with a desired player path. Ensuring that the space was laid out to accommodate the physics of the game.

• Designed the tutorial level to teach the player the pick-up, throw and crafting mechanics.

• Designed the crafting, order and storage systems, while keeping in mind real-life coffee recipes.

• Programmed Gameplay Systems (Craft, Order, Unlock Coffee). 

• Implemented and programmed the Follow Camera & Orthographic Camera.

• Implemented Gameplay UI (Money, Time, Order trackers, and Upgrade Menu).

• Implemented UI indicators unique to playing with a controller.

• Wrote upgrade descriptions for player clarity.

• Took on Alpha and Beta playtest feedback and implemented suitable changes.

• Kept up-to-date progress posts on the team's LinkedIn.

From the ideas, I mapped out some initial level ideas. I wanted the player to start at the storage area, bring resources to the crafting area, followed by bringing the crafted coffee out to the café and delivering it to the customer. Where the gameplay loop would then be repeated. 

These levels were then brought to the team for discussion. Overall the team preferred the shape of C. However we liked the more open space of A, with the cluttered seating of B.

To avoid getting caught up making level drafts, I decided to create the level white box. This allowed us to get an idea of our space in the game and allowed us to make any changes we wanted from the drafts. 

The level had an area for storage in the back, followed by a counter with a crafting area behind it. This led to the open area with tables and chairs which connected to the bathroom. We now had our "playground" for testing gameplay.

After our environmental artist had created assets, I updated the white box. Our level now had a sense of atmosphere, and was beginning to look a lot more like our decided cyberpunk café theme.

I decided to block off the bathroom space as it was not being used during this point of development. Eventually, this space would be replaced, as adding a bathroom would have created more work with potential mechanics and environmental assets.

As development continued over the months, the space we had was beginning to become outdated. The level needed an update for our Beta release to keep up with new development changes and decisions.

I drew up an updated concept for our level with a desired player path.

The space had the bathroom space replaced with additional NPC seating space. The level overall was also larger, giving the Player and NPCs more space to move around.

After the level was updated with these changes, we added our new assets. This included the countertop, storage shelves and recipe board.

After the level updates, I added additional assets to make the level feel more lived in and more visually like a café. Bookshelves, carpets, lights and couches.

With our concept made. I decided on how the system would work.

The system would involve taking ingredients in boxes and storing them in crafting storage units for them to be used in crafting.

Because managing the costs of resources would be another level of complexity to the gameplay, we decided that the storage boxes would have an unlimited amount of their resource. However, the crafting storage units can only hold a certain amount of that resource.