Gun On Wheels | 2019 (1 month)
Race & Rail Shooter
Lead Designer | 3C Designer
Unreal Engine 4
Themes: cooperation | gangster | new york
Pitch: Be part of a gang doing all kinds of missions (car chases, escorts, escapes...) in New York during the 90s.
Either play as the pilot, driving dangerously through the streets, or the shooter, who can can switch places behind the wheel!
During my 4th year at Supinfogame - Rubika, we were asked to propose game concepts for our 5th year's future project. I proposed Gun On Wheels with a design document. 5 other students of my batch therefore joined me to make the proof of concept in order to pass the second phase.
Proof of concept (1 week)
The game is in local split screen. The pilot is on the upper part and can switch from a third person to first person view. The shooter is on the lower part and can change places (front passenger, trunk...) by pressing on the D-Pad.
Explosion / Slow-motion demo
One intention of our proof of concept was to create a "wow" effect, as in action movies with car and shooting scenes. It is why we quickly decided to prototype an explosion FX and slow-motion on Unreal.
UE4 Presentation (2 weeks)
In addition to the proof of concept prototype, we had to make a 20 minute presentation in front of the Jury. We were ambitious and decided to make not a powerpoint presentation but an engine presentation, where slides were dispatched in a 3D scene, and a camera went from one angle to the other.
It was a also a way for us to show of our universe better, since the Unreal presentation took place in the gang's garage, displaying not only notes and slides, but also assets and poster references showing our main inspirations.
After a talk about the global shape of the scene with the other designers, I started to make a blockout while Florian created a camera tool, which I used later to create all the camera angles and transitions. Once done, both artists (Léa and Tanguy) sent me all assets (materials, 3D models, FX etc...) which I imported and integrated. As the final step, Léa and I did the level building and the lighting, making sure the presentation was both readable and fitting the art direction.
Here is what it look likes:
Texts are in French.
Concept Document (2 weeks) [French]
In addition to the proof of concept prototype and the presentation, we also made a polished concept document of 8 pages, displaying all useful information for the jury to get a better picture of the game.
This document was also a way for the team to make sure everybody had the same vision, as all main aspects of Gun On Wheels (3C, core mechanics, level design, art direction, universe, USPs) are mentioned in the document.
Concept Arts
Environment
Depicting popular neighborhoods of New York in the 90s
Gangster's car
Characters
Inspired by muscle cars from the 80s
Mike (pilot)
Tracey (shooter)
Outcome
Unfortunately, Gun On Wheels didn't make it to the 3rd phase, for both design and technical reasons. First, the jury thought the core gameplay was too much of a gimmick to be developed as a full game. Furthermore, the jury thought it was too much of a challenge to work with split screens on Unreal, since we wanted to make dynamic split screens.
Gun On Wheels' development was therefore stopped and all team members were dispatched in selected projects. I was selected to be both a producer and a game designer (without owning the vision) of Battle Cars, a racing Battle Royale, which I would work on during my final year at Supinfogame - Rubika and that I was also fond of!
Other Team Members:
Alexis Ledouble | Programmer
Léa Lescuyer | Art Director and 3D Artist
Tanguy Talbert | 3D Artist
Florian Eschalier | Technical Game Designer
Pierre Llanusa | Game & Level Designer
Phase 1
1 person
Concept
5 people
Proof of concept
Phase 2
Phase 3
9 people
FPP