Game Design
Bugg model. Credit: Tyler Stott
TEAM
Jon Peters - Senior Game Design
Anthony Ordon - Game Design
Eric Flannum - Creative Director
..and many others
YEAR
2020
This section is a highlight of my character/combat design working on Crucible at Amazon Games.
Two characters are being highlighted: "Bugg", a character that was launched with Crucible and "Lady Rensa" a character that was nearing completion at the time production for the game was halted.
"Bugg" was a character that centered around the fantasy of being a gardener. His main gameplay loop revolved around seeding and "watering" his plants, as well as flying around and "crop dusting" enemies. Bugg's design goal was to allow players who did not have fast hand-eye coordination to participate in defensive "turret" style gameplay.
My contribution was the character core gameplay concept and initial implementation. Full credit goes to Anthony Ordon for bringing Bugg through to completion in the final Crucible engine.
Early prototype of Bugg in an old version of the Lumberyard engine
Final design for Bugg
Official character overview for Bugg
Lady Rensa Gameplay
"Lady Rensa" was designed with the classic "rocket jump" gameplay fantasy. "Rocket jumping" is a mechanic often used in games, where the player purposefully uses an explosion (like from a rocket) to propel their character further. This mechanic is not obvious to players, so the twist with Rensa was that her core abilities teach players how to rocket jump.
I wanted the feel of Rensa's abilities to embody her "high and mighty" attitude by literally being above the other characters. Rensa could contribute to team gameplay by creating large detonations on the ground, and from above
Prototype gameplay for Lady Rensa
Reticle UI Designs
In addition to creating the character design for Rensa, I had the opportunity to create the iconography and UI for Rensa.
Unfortunately, Crucible was cancelled shortly after the initial launch. While these characters resonated strongly with our players, they did not have much time to shine. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work on character designs for Amazon Games
Visual effect concept art for Lady Rensa. Credit: Kekai Kotaki