Jazz Out

Fast-paced, jazz-themed combat-platformer, where the player completes levels by using enemies as platforms.

Key Takeaways The value of rapid prototyping for iteration

Clear way of showing ideas - reducing misunderstandings.
Enables decision-making based on playtests in context of the game rather than theory alone.

RoleTech Gameplay Designer

EngineUnreal Engine 5.3

Team Size10

Timeline7 weeks - Q2 2024

Ideation 4 days

Prototyping 6 days

Production 5 weeks

Overview

Main Challenges

Making the game dynamic

Provide sufficient level of challenges

Highlights

Kick ability to help players reach and keep a state of flow

Combo system to incentivize players to chain together abilities

Project

Project Brief

Create a game in Unreal Engine based on at least one of three themes: - "With a twist", "Once upon a time" and "It's dangerous to go alone".

Team Goal

Make a game based on the "With a twist" theme. A combat platformer, where enemies are used in the game's platforming.

Design Pillars

Action

Fast paced, engaging and satisfying gameplay

Exploration

Find the perfect line to improve your best time

Mastery

Gain satisfaction from seeing yourself getting better

Core Gameplay Loop

Gameplay Design

Problem Gameplay wasn't dynamic

Lack of player choice - players only had two abilities: punch and blink, and blinks could only be followed up by another blink in the air - often back down to the ground.

Players were limited in how far they could go in the air, which was a shame due to the freedom offered by the blink ability

Gameplay felt like a game of connect the dots, where all the player had to do was to keep pressing the blink button to connect NPCs until they reached the end of a level

Solution #1 Kick ability

Hurls an enemy into another enemy, launching both of them into the air upon impact.

Players could now create paths in the air instead of being forced to the ground, giving them greater control of traversal

Players weren't forced back to the ground as often, making it much easier to reach and retain a sense of flow

How long can the player stay off the ground? An additional challenge for players to take on and improve

Iterations: Iteration 1 Tilted aim, group launch

Manual aim at an angle under the crosshair.
Groups of enemies were launched into the air.

Reason for next iteration
Having the aim sphere under the crosshair felt off, and launching multiple enemies at once felt clumsy

Iteration 2 Straight aim, single launch

Manual aim at crosshair.
Single enemy is launched into the air when colliding with another enemy.

Reason for next iteration
Aiming manually slowed down the pace of the gameplay

Iteration 3 Lock aim

Enemy closest to the crosshair within range is marked as target to launch the kicked enemy towards.
If no target is found, the enemy is kicked in the direction of the camera.

Technical Solution: Technical solution for Iteration 1. After this iteration, my code was refactored and adjustments were made by developers according to specifications.

Step 1 Project sphere

A sphere is projected in front of the player after blinking
View blueprint

Step 2 Kick

The enemy under the player is launched towards the center of the projected sphere
View blueprint

Step 3 Launch

When the kicked enemy hits the ground, an impact sphere is spawned, which launches all enemies within a set radius.
View blueprint

Solution #2 Wall jump

Players can jump off a wall once to reach otherwise inaccessible platforms and enemies

Another tool to for players to create their own path, granting even more freedom of movement

Chain together blinks between enemies that are just out of reach with just a jump and blink

Iterations: Iteration 1 Backward jump

Player has to face the wall to be able to wall jump.
Force is applied up and away from the wall, to change direction without losing momentum

Reason for next iteration
The direction of level design made the backward jump not very useful, so it was adjusted to be usable to keep moving forward.

Iteration 2 Upward jump

Player can face anywhere to wall jump
Force is applied upward to allow regular wall jumping in any direction

Technical Solution: Iteration 1 Backward jump

Check for a wall in front of the player and apply force away from it + upward
View blueprint

Iteration 2 Upward jump

Check for a wall near the player and apply force upward
View blueprint

Problem Shallow level of challenge

Few dimensions of challenges - the game didn't provide enough aspects to master

No gameplay feedback for mastering the balance between combat and movement abilities

Players could skip entire levels by just blinking to an enemy they kick in front of them over and over again

Solution Combo System

I designed and implemented a combo system that lowered the base movement speed, limited the usage of blinks and granted bonuses during an active combo.

Players now had an additional incentive to keep pushing forward - to keep their bonuses before the combo runs out

The game now provided continuous feedback that the player is doing well, by granting an empowerment by increased mobility

Iterations: Iteration 1 1 blink charge

Limit of 1 max blink charge
Reason for next iteration
1 charge was too restrictive - too much emphasis on blink management

Iteration 2 2 limits & 2 timer speeds

3 charges out of combat building up to max 6.
Combo timer drained quicker on the ground to incentivise players to stay in the air.

Reason for next iteration
Quicker drain on the ground was intended to push players to stay on top of enemies, but felt punishing instead - taking away focus from finding the quickest line

Iteration 3 3 difficulties & 1 timer speed

Amount of charges depends on difficulty to let players choose the desired level of challenge.
Combo timer has only one speed.

Technical Solution: Step 1 Trigger combo

An ability or enemy collision triggers the combo function.
It updates combo points, blinks and speed limit if needed.

View blueprint

Step 2 Combo timer

A timer is active during an active combo, which is reset whenever the player is awarded a combo point.
Combo points are reset when this timer expires

View blueprint

Step 3 Speed limit

The player's speed is continuously being limited to the speed limit, dictated by the current combo
View blueprint

Game Feel Goal: enhance the power fantasy

Solution Jump Boost

Speed boost after jumping off an enemy to incentivize players to jump from enemies as much as possible.

Technical Solution: Trigger if enemy is underneath

On jump, if an enemy is underneath the player, jump boost is triggered.
It smoothly increases the speed multiplier, waits for a set time, then smoothly decreeses it again

View blueprint

Solution Music Layering Implementation

Strengthens the jazz theme and creates positive feedback by adding musical layers with increased combo score

Technical Solution: Trigger on combo update

Every time a combo is updated, it triggers the music management function
If the combo is reset, or if the music isn't fully enabled - the music is updated

View blueprint

Prototyping

Concept 1 3rd person sword fighter

Sword fighting game where the player defeats enemy mannequins by cutting off ropes to their crosses.

I spent half a day playing around with rope and ragdoll mechanics and after discussing it with the team we agreed on the following risks:

Few developers - accurate detection of which ropes are being cut could require a lot of effort testing time to avoid player frustration.

No dedicated animators - a variation in enemies for players to engage with would require an increased number of animations.

Technical Solution: Spawn blade to slice the ropes

I opted for a quick solution to replicating a sword, rather than finding and setting up proper melee animations. Most of the time was spent getting collisions between the slicer and cables to work, which I ended up solving by adding a collider box along each cable.
On attack, a slicer-actor is spawned and moved diagonally, cutting ropes on overlap. When a rope is cut, the corresponding limb becomes limp.

View blueprint

Concept 2 Enemy Utilizing Platformer

First person platformer where enemies are used as platforms instead of being defeated

Prototype 1

I spent two-three days on interpreting the concept and trying out how enemies could be turned into platforming elements. For this prototype I tried combining a flinging mechanic with platform movement, so that the player could create their own paths through levels.

Fun to fling enemies

Choppy gameplay

Technical Solution: Ability 1 Pull & push

Pull an enemy to the player.
Push a pulled enemy onto a wall.

View blueprint

Ability 2 Raise & lower

Raise or lower a pushed enemy
View blueprint

Prototype 2

I picked up a prototype that a teammate had started working on and continued exploring the concept for two days (he had implemented the uppercut and blink abilities) - that way we had a somewhat similar direction while continuing trying out different possibilities.

Fun to juggle enemies while platforming

Better, but still no real sense of flow

Technical Solution: Step 1 Kick enemy

Check for enemy underneath the player.
If found, launch it in the camera's direction.

View blueprint

Step 2 Launch enemies

On ground impact, do a sphere trace and launch all hit enemies in the air.
Launched enemies are frozen in the air for a while and then returned to the ground.

View blueprint

Jazz Out

Key Takeaways The value of rapid prototyping for iteration

Overview

Main Challenges

Highlights

Project

Project Brief

Team Goal

Design Pillars

Action

Exploration

Mastery

Core Gameplay Loop

Gameplay Design

Problem Gameplay wasn't dynamic

Solution #1 Kick ability

Iteration 1 Tilted aim, group launch

Iteration 2 Straight aim, single launch

Iteration 3 Lock aim

Step 1 Project sphere

Step 2 Kick

Step 3 Launch

Solution #2 Wall jump

Iteration 1 Backward jump

Iteration 2 Upward jump

Iteration 1 Backward jump

Iteration 2 Upward jump

Problem Shallow level of challenge

Solution Combo System

Iteration 1 1 blink charge

Iteration 2 2 limits & 2 timer speeds

Iteration 3 3 difficulties & 1 timer speed

Step 1 Trigger combo

Step 2 Combo timer

Step 3 Speed limit

Game Feel Goal: enhance the power fantasy

Solution Jump Boost

Trigger if enemy is underneath

Solution Music Layering Implementation

Trigger on combo update

Prototyping

Concept 1 3rd person sword fighter

Spawn blade to slice the ropes

Concept 2 Enemy Utilizing Platformer

Prototype 1

Ability 1 Pull & push

Ability 2 Raise & lower

Prototype 2

Step 1 Kick enemy

Step 2 Launch enemies