Molementum

This game was a student-led title released on Steam in early May 2024. I was one of the team's level designers, having been recruited and onboarded in December 2023, following pre-production & successful greenlight. My teammates were...
- Charley Petty - lead producer
- Harper Bennett - co-producer
- John Odell - lead designer
- Robert Niewodowski - level & systems designer
- Isaac Hessel-Robinson - systems & technical designer
- William Esancy - level & UI designer
- Jackson Klein - systems designer
- Osiah Dorman - sound & narrative designer
- Lucia Hughes - lead programmer
- Aster Nie - physics & networking programmer
- Yuuki Endo - gameplay & audio programmer
- Eugene Bryant - gameplay programmer
- Sparrow Hopp - AI programmer
- Isaac Lovy - lead artist
- Leah Nelson - environmental artist
- Kiera Robie - environmental & prop artist
- Justin Bissonette - character artist

The aim of this project was to create a game viable for marketing and shipping on Steam, and to simulate a professional game development environment.

Molementum is a multiplayer (online) party game with 3D platforming characteristics - players run around an underground area, competing to be the best mole thief. A game is divided into three rounds, with two objectives each. The primary objective is always to collect the most gems, while the secondary objective varies by round. Between rounds, players get to select an upgrade for their mole, ranging from new abilities to stat boosts. "Notoriety points" are awarded based on players' performance in each round, and whoever has the most of these at the end of the game wins.

With so many level designers on the team, a consensus was reached that we would each make our own map from the ground up. We were all given the same three broad goals. A: the map had to have verticality to it. B: the map needed open space that players would be funneled into to encourage confrontational gameplay. And C: every map needed a big, unique "set piece" in the middle to make it stand out.

With a drill - the most stereotypical mining tool - already taken as a set piece, I went for the second-most stereotypical tool; a bucket wheel excavator. In real life, these excavators are the biggest and most powerful land vehicles known to mankind, and I made it a priority to put that awesome size on full display when creating one for this map. From there, conveyer belts leading from the arm to funnels on either side enabled players to filter back down to the lower levels after taking the excavator up - or to intercept players that just went up. Gems were placed along the buckets to give players incentive to ride up (compensating for the slow speed) and confront each other on the way up.

My collaboration with my teammates differed by discipline. During the gray-boxing process, I hit a block with filling spaces in the map, especially beyond the front of the bucket wheel; thankfully, my fellow designers were more than happy to weigh in & provide feedback. After the gray-box was finalized and handed off to the artists, I made myself available to answer any of their questions regarding environmental models, ensuring that no gray areas were left in the map's aesthetic direction. Meanwhile, I implemented components for secondary objectives after consulting with programmers on how to do so. I & a few other designers also coded some of the player upgrades for the programmers (Holey Moley, Jerkface, etc.) to help lighten their workload.

In retrospect, this game continued my upward trend as a game designer. I worked alongside several other designers like me, and they pushed me to a level of skill that I doubt I've ever reached before. But, more importantly, this was my first experience in a professional AND well-run team environment. Morale was remarkably high throughout the whole project, we got a game onto Steam, and we even exhibited at PAX East!