Tales From the Void

My Role: Game Designer and Programmer
Time on project: 1.5 years (fall 2014 – spring 2016)
Average team size: 4-6 people
Available At: Steam
Publisher: Black Dog (defunct)
Platform: Windows
Input: Keyboard + Mouse
Engine: Unity 3D
MetaCritic Score: TBD

Main Contributions:

  • Game framework
    • Responsible for the save and load functionality.
    • Setup the Steam integration and achievements.
  • Combat:
    • Created the framework for setting up weapons and projectiles.
    • Tweaked and balanced damage and physics values for combat.
    • Managed the physics setup for our enemy models. The difficulty here would vary where some enemies were simply hovering slightly above the ground as if walking, where others (the jelly fish in particular) would float 3 meters above the ground. The jelly fish required an elaborate physics setup in order to both be both good looking while moving, while also being able to balance the forces keeping them upright with the forces from projectiles trying to tip them over.
    • Designed and implemented the enemy AI using a behavior tree plugin called RAIN.
  • Animations:
    • Managed the character animator, and IK.
    • Setup transitions back and forth between animation and ragdoll state for both player characters and enemies.
  • UI:
    • Setup the overlay UI logic for menus and combat.
    • Created aiming visualization shaders for combat targeting.
  • Pipelines:
    • Setup and handled the localization process using the I2 Localization plugin for Unity.
  • Community:
    • Monitored our steam socials and support-inbox to provide support for our players.

Awards:

Theme and Gameplay:

The British submarine HMS-18 was lost during the first world war.. 93 years later it is discovered in the Baltic sea with no clue about what the fate of the crew was.. This is the story about that crew and their fantastic adventure to alien asteroids in outer space.

Tales from the void is a tactical-action game it plays on two different levels; the player must manage the resources of the submarine (air/food/crew) through social events to make sure you don’t run out of either, as well as go on missions to asteroids in order to scavenge resources and find a way home.

The missions on each asteroid plays from a 3rd person perspective where the player takes control of up to 5 crew members. The player must direct the crew indirectly by drawing the route they should walk on the ground with the cursor and selecting which enemy the individual soldier should attack.

Combat was two fold, on one side each weapon dealt regular health damage, and on the other side each projectile would add a force to the target character knocking them about. If at any point a character would tilt more than 90 degrees they would die (both players and enemies). Dealing damage to an enemy would gradually weaken their joint forces keeping them upright, making it easier to knock them over. Thus combat involves both dealing damage to enemies while also attempting to combine weaponry to apply enough forces to enemies simultaneously in order to tilt them or knock them over the edge of the map.