HaberDashers
HaberDashers is a console-style arcade (kart) racer in which players control miniature humanoid inhabitants of an everyday home, racing through household rooms, using racing skills and pickups to earn victory.
Tech
Unreal Engine 4, Blueprint scripting
Role
Game Designer
Platform
PC
Released
May 2020
Game Design Highlights
I was in charge of delivering two pickups for this game, one of which was our equivalent of the "blue shell" from mario kart - the Magnet. I worked together to help develop pickups from the other team members as well as representing the pickup "sub team" to standup meetings and broad design discussions.
Responsibilities
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Responsible for designing and implementing the Magnet pickup
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Responsible for designing and implementing the Marble pickup
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Accountable for the delivery of pickups to meet milestones according to the vision of the leads
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Point of contact for the pickups sub-team
The Magnet
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The design goal: how do we make a "blue shell" that doesn't ruin the experience for the player in first?
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Idea generation: We had pickups that were commonly found in other kart racers, but we wanted to come up with something unique to our game. The idea of things sticking together with static electricity over time transformed into the magnet pickup.
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Advantages over the blue shell:
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Doesn't nuke the player in first and ruin their experience.
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Compresses the leading competition - karts that get caught in the area of effect are pulled together, making it a close race when the effect ends.
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Implementation: The first goal was to demonstrate that "pulling" multiple karts to an object or actor was possible. This was achieved through LERPing on an array of karts generated based on distance - creating the "area"of effect, and simulating the attractive force of a magnet.
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Final Pickup: A powerful attack that gets placed on whoever is in first place (similar to the 'Blue Shell' targeting the player in first), slows them down, and creates a magnetic field around them, sticking nearby karts to them.