Ue4: SNowpainters
My role
My role within the project was to act sort of like a creative director in which I had to come up with the theme and mechanics for our game, pitch the game to our stakeholders, and then keep the vision across disciplines. Aside from working with other leads, it proved as a great opportunity to make sure concepts and ideas held uniform while talking to programmers, artists, and other designers.
Play the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545710/Snowpainters/
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Platform: PC
Development Time: 10 weeks
Team Size: 40
Role: Lead Game Designer
Game Summary
Snowpainters is an arcade racing game where you play as speedy color-changing penguins. Play alone or with friends, change between colors, race on colorful paint trails, and bring color to a snowy environment! Use a new, unique mechanic to the arcade racing genre. Gather paint cans to fill your boost meter and speed through the track while dropping paint trails behind you. Strategically change your color to match the different paint trails on the track to go even faster!
post mortem
game mechanics
Coming up with the mechanics for the game:
As the lead game designer, I was tasked with coming up with the core mechanics for our classic Kart Racing game. Recognizing that I don’t have all of the answers, I began the process by first gathering all of the other leads to brainstorm different unique concepts. The idea that really stuck with me was an idea revolving around a light changing concept. From there, it quickly evolved into cute animals painting a plain environment. Which is something that ultimately became a pillar of our game.
Color Changing Mechanic
This is the core element of the game, with this concept of swapping between different colors being the original idea that gave this game an initial direction.
Sliding over a “paint puddle” changes the player’s color to whatever color they slide over.
There are 3 colors to change between, Pink, Green, and Blue (These colors were chosen as it accommodated the most amount of color blind issues).
Boosting
Running over paint cans fills the players “boost meter”, as displayed in the bottom left.
Players can boost at anytime, giving them a speed boost.
Boosting also leaves a color-corresponding trail behind.
Going over paint trails
This is used as a slight rubberbanding mechanic to help players behind catch up.
Sliding over a paint trail that is the same color as your penguin gives the player a speed boost.
Adds a strategic element to the game in which players in first will have to decide whether they want to boost to try to get further ahead, but leave a paint trail that gives the players a boost.