This is "Disc-GO!", a pick-up and play, party game, nominated for a TIGA Award 2024 for Best Social Game.
During the Summer of 2024, I spent 6 weeks as part of the 1-UP Scheme, a paid internship role as a game developer for Bulldog Studios at the University of Staffordshire.
I worked on Mechanics, UI, Audio and QA. See below for my process within all of these and the work I did for the project.
Bulldog Studio's 1UP-Scheme Team of both "Disc-GO!" & "MechHead" - University of Staffordshire 2024
I was tasked with prototyping the power indicator for the main disc throw of the game. The executives wanted an indicator that gave visuals on both the progress of the disc charge whilst simultaneously displaying the direction the player was facing.
I began with researching similar indicators to see what design inspiration I could take into the prototyping phase. I then developed a simple widget, tying into the player character's blueprint in Unreal to begin testing with. You can see snapshots of the blueprint below:
I crafted a Powerpoint to share with the team on the thinking involved, as well as basic visual designs to give the team options on how to proceed with the development. The slides I prepared are below:
Captures were taken of the development of the prototype, of which some you can see below:
Both the menus and the main gameplay screen needed initial designs and block outs for the artists and the programmers to implement. I designed both in Powerpoint, after conducting lots of research which I collated in Miro.
Being clear, concise and with attached annotations, this allowed for the team to clearly see the intention of the designs. Also, if there were a new starter on such a project, it would be easy to understand.
You can see snapshots of both the block outs and the research below:
Because of my background in the music industry and basic knowledge of Logic Pro, I took on the task of creating SFX for the game.
I would gather assets from freesound.org, split them into appropriate folders as to what sound they could cover and then bring in a mix of sounds to combine and blend them to fit the theme/atmosphere of the game.
Alongside this, I recorded, produced and mixed the "3, 2, 1, GO!" kick-off sound using voice recordings of several members of the team. The executives wanted an 'animal-ese' type sound, similar to that of animal crossing, for the countdown going into the gameplay. I set up a recording area, drafted up a script (see below) and asked each team member to go from A-Z using a lower-case sound, including the 3, 2, 1. I made sure each team member left a space between each sound, so that when it came to cutting and mixing, the workload was easier for me to manage. The result can be heard in the teaser trailer here!
Above are just a selection of the sounds I created for Disc-GO! - follow the links to hear them...
