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About IDENTITY

In the dark aftermath of the information age, individuals have lost the ability to publicly protect their identities and they must take care to safeguard them. IDENTITY is an over-the-shoulder third-person stealth game that emphasizes the importance of guarding and exposing identities. The unnamed protagonist is on a mission to infiltrate Idema Data Network in order to bring down the Cyprium Sever Primus, freeing humanity from large-scale identity theft. The player uses their hacking and identity-stealing abilities to copy digital identities, fool guards, and bypass security.
Identity
IDENTITY

Development Information

  • Total Project Length: 7 months, 2013-2014
  • Team Size: 14 developers
  • Role: Level Designer
  • Weekly Work Hours: 21 hours
  • Engine: Unreal Development Kit July 2013

My Responsibilities

  • Design and build levels, including any Kismet scripting, lighting, and particles necessary
  • Track tasks on Trello boards, participate in team Scrum, and report blockers
  • Utilize version control (Perforce) and communicate with team members about shared files
  • Work with art department to script and record the beginning and ending cinematics
  • Served on sound committee to find, format, and upload sounds into the game

Work Examples

Built and scripted the intro cinematic, in collaboration with artist Nick Clark
Scripted an elevator to rush down the elevator shaft just as the player walks into it
Scripted the ending cinematic in collaboration with Nick Clark, with storyboard by Christina Rhoades

Postmortem

What Went Right
  • United art department
  • Sound and voice over creation
  • Early playtesting and iteration
  • Producer has a black belt in Rubber Ducky programming
  • Weekly newsletter to distribute decisions and changes throughout the team
  • No feature creep during production
  • Strong skillsets from all departments
  • Unanimous group buy-in to game concept
  • Awesome team culture
What Went Wrong
  • Project was overscoped
  • Primary gameplay loop was complex instead of simple
  • Debate between using 1st or 3rd person perspective ran too late into the project
  • Constant animation rework
  • Initial communication between level design and art departments
  • Greatly underestimated time needed for review and polish at the end of each milestone
  • Difference in the definition of "modularity" between art and level design departments
  • Stairs
What We Learned
  • How to fight constructively over game features
  • Stealth is hard
  • If it is not conveyed to the player, it does not exist
  • How to identify "black hole" tasks
  • Incorporate art/level design reviews earlier
  • Make decisions as transparent as possible

Screenshots