HOB
Runic Games
Senior Level Designer
(Playstation 4, PC | Third-Person Action-Adventure)
August 2017
Overworld Design
Dungeon Design
Electric Walker
Magic Door
Warp Clock
Titan Core
Meeting Mother Sprite
Water Repair and Pipe Ride
Raising the Tower Zone + "The Battle"
Meeting the Mysterious Stranger
Gameplay and Scripting Systems
Enemy Systems
LEVEL DESIGN
Overworld Design
I co-designed the world of Hob with Patrick Blank (Lead Level Designer and Game Director). Hob’s world contained five unique zones and vast “Overworld” areas connecting those zones. The world encompassed a stark juxtaposition of mechanical underpinnings set against a more lush, organic Overworld. I worked on roughly half of the world, from the Electric Zone through to the end of the game.
Responsibilities
Level layout (progression, shortcuts, traversal)
Decoration
Ambient scripting (animals, FX)
Combat scripting
Custom camera scripting
Player-collision tuning and placement
Pick-up and collectible distribution and placement
Dungeon Design
The Dungeons beneath the Overworld provided an opportunity to imagine more abstract spaces and experiment with scale in exciting ways. All Dungeons were built relatively scaled to the Overworld, creating a sense of place and believability when entering and exiting from the spaces.
Responsibilities included designing, building, decorating and scripting:
Mother Sprite’s Dungeon (video above)
Electric Dungeon (video above)
Warp Glove Dungeon (video above)
Hidden Lake Dungeon (video above)
Grapple Glove Dungeon
Cliff-side Mini Dungeon
"Each conquered dungeon feels like a mini triumph as you watch the desolate and dying world come back to life, and I loved the sense of wonder and each 'a-ha' moment of discovery. Even after I finished the main story of Hob, I was excited to jump back in and search for more secrets hidden within the world."
Game Informer
PUZZLE DESIGN
An overall design goal was to make Hob’s puzzles engaging, but not frustrating - complex enough to provide satisfaction when solved, without requiring an intense amount of effort. We wanted to make an adventure game with puzzles in it, versus a puzzle game with adventure elements. Puzzles were kept within the 2-5 minute range for completion.
In the puzzles I designed, I worked to ensure players had all information needed for a solution, as long as they took the time to observe their surroundings. I also aimed to include a variety of puzzle types in my areas. Some were smaller in scale, some required back-and-forth experimentation and others were purely traversal. I built the puzzles around consistent motifs (rotation/manipulation of objects, timing-based mechanics) that built up in complexity as the game went on.
Responsibilities
Designed, scripted and constructed more than a dozen puzzles
Iterated heavily on owned puzzles based on playtest feedback
Samples featured in video gallery
Electric Walker puzzle
Magic Door puzzle
Warp Clock puzzle
Titan Core puzzle
"Not content to merely give us pretty scenery, Hob serves up a land where the world itself is a puzzle so that, with the press of a button, the landscape alters itself in a way that rugged cliffs and plateaus leap up where there was only sky before. You'll find some of the most impressive sights above ground, but others hide under the surface in dungeons housing engines so massive they could probably serve as spare parts for the Death Star."
IGN
CINEMATICS SCRIPTING
Responsibilities
Coordinated with design leadership, animation, sound and FX to execute a cohesive vision for each owned cinematic moment
Scripted and assembled all parts of owned cinematics via visual scripting
Created custom cinematic objects for scripting
Implemented custom key frame events within cinematic animations for external scripting references
Samples featured in video gallery
Meeting Mother Sprite
Water Repair and Pipe Ride
Raising the Tower Zone + “The Battle”
Meeting the Mysterious Stranger
"Hob masterfully scatters visual cues that entice you to search areas that feel off the beaten path. I didn't mind letting distractions pull me away from my main objectives; I not only relished the opportunity to further envelop myself in the beautiful environment, but these areas often turned out to be essential."
Game Informer
SYSTEMS DESIGN
Gameplay and Scripting Systems
Responsibilities
Built and maintained the vast majority of interactable objects, including complex save states
Ensured all objects were built to support scripted communications with each other, including numerous possible input and output events, for bespoke gameplay uses
Designed versatile custom set-piece objects to allow reuse in numerous situations (Glove Upgrade Stations, Story Room Doors, Titan Core Housing, Rogue Seeds, Cinematic Sprite Objects)
Prototyped new gameplay mechanics for Glove Abilities, Puzzles and Traversal
Enemy Systems
Responsibilities
Designed Robot enemy types with behavior driven by interactables in the environment, including other Robot enemies:
Security Bot: These bots will seek wall-spawners for the larger robots when they detect an enemy presence. They can be destroyed before successfully opening the wall-spawner.
Advanced Security Bot (cut): These Security Bots with on-board weapons were intended to try to spawn additional bots from wall-spawners, but also attack the player afterward.
Club Bot: A sturdy melee unit with a large club arm. They have a series of melee swing combos and an overhead smash.
Rocket Bot: A long-ranged variant of the Club Bot, these units come equipped with slow-moving rockets that will seek their targets.
Healer Bot (cut): This unit was intended to look for downed bots in the world and attempt to revive them. The player could prevent a revive by executing a Ground Punch to completely destroy a bot.
Big Bot (cut): The second largest in the Robo-family, these were intended to be mini-bosses that could sustain a large amount of damage and execute a number of attacks, from melee to ranged.
Boss Bot (cut): The largest bot, these units were meant to be included in major boss encounters. With a variety of melee attacks, including a 360-degree spin, and a ranged attack that rains down bombs throughout the level, they were a formidable foe.
"Hob is a beautiful Zelda-like puzzler with fun combat elements that takes place on an enchanting world where nature and machinery alter the landscape as easily as a twist of a Rubik's cube."