In Reek N' Havok players take on the role of two mischievous goblins, Reek and Havok, as they cause chaos in towns by starting disasters, disrupting supplies, and committing crimes.
As the lead designer and project manager for Reek N' Havok, I was responsible for the overall vision and direction of the game. This unique game concept was based on the idea of a reverse city builder where the player must strategize dismantling a town rather than building it. NPC's will eat, drink, gather resources and help one another and it is the players job to disrupt the ecosystem of the town using different tools and techniques.
I worked closely with the development team to ensure that the game mechanics, art style, and overall tone were consistent with our vision. My contributions to Reek N' Havok helped to create a one-of-a-kind gaming experience.
Major Practical Contributions
Level Design:
I served as a level designer for the project, responsible for creating mission layouts and set dressing them. One notable example is E1_M3, our final mission in the game, which functions as a vast sandbox and served as a thorough testing ground for the game's mechanics.
The red lines represent the flow of villagers throughout the city. The three bridges ensure that villagers move around the city in a figure-8 pattern. This design promotes a balanced distribution of villagers while ensuring their proximity to essential resources such as wells and markets, preventing starvation in a healthy economy. However, the player has the ability to disrupt this flow by destroying one or more of the bridges.
The yellow areas and lines depict the three primary resource gathering locations for worker villagers and their corresponding deposit buildings. It is worth noting that each type of worker needs to cross a bridge to deliver their resources. This strategic placement of bridges further incentivizes the player to destroy them, as it forces the workers to take longer paths to deliver resources, thus slowing down the town's resource acquisition.
The purple 'X' represents the player spawn point. By positioning the player outside of the city, it encourages them to enter the city as their initial goal. Additionally, it allows the player to explore the safer outer city area first, where guards are absent.
The blue line illustrates the path that the supply wagon takes throughout the map. The wagon passes by the player spawn point to introduce its presence early in the game, as it is one of the first things the player encounters. Towards the end of its journey, the supply wagon crosses a bridge, giving the player ample time to react and potentially destroy the bridge. Furthermore, the wagon deliberately avoids passing through the city, incentivizing the player to occasionally leave the city and address the supply wagon.
Village and Villager AI:
I successfully designed and implemented the village and villager AI utilizing Unreal Engine's blackboard and behavior tree. This task presented a significant challenge due to the complexity of the behaviors required for the villagers. They needed to dynamically react to the player's actions, their surroundings, the needs of the village, and their personal needs.
Character Modeling and Animations:
I also worked on the vast majority of character models and animations for the game, taking into consideration the perspective, style and scale of the character on screen.
Characters designed and animated by me
Characters designed and animated by me
Characters designed and animated by me