Mapstermind

Development Time: January-May 2022

Team Size: 14

Technology: Unreal Engine 4

Platform: PC

Role: Systems Designer

Game Trailer

Intent

Mapstermind is an asymmetrical couch co-op party game where a team of Piecelings must work together to complete tasks before time runs out while evading the player controlling the Mapster, who is a pair of floating hands with the goal of stalling the Piecelings until time runs out. The Piecelings scramble to return order to the stage by completing tasks while avoiding attacks launched by the Mapster. Through this our game encourages teamwork among the Piecelings through collaborative objectives, and fosters an intense yet lighthearted competition between them and the Mapster. Mapstermind features a cute and friendly art style that is synonymous with party games, a wonderful cast of characters for players to choose from, and is tailored to families and friends of all ages due to the fun yet competitive nature of the gameplay.

Challenges

After being onboarded, my primary responsibility was creating traps and attacks for the new Seafloor stage. The greatest challenge of this stage was presented by its layout, which was more open than the original City stage. Static traps wouldn’t catch Piecelings, as they had more open space to utilize, and just making the traps bigger would take away from the freedom that the Piecelings were given.

To tackle this challenge, I initially created two traps: the puffer fish and the clamling. Both of these traps are unlike previous ones, as they are both mobile. Using the bottom face button on their controller, the Mapster can select the direction these traps move in. After placing them, they will patrol a certain distance away from their starting point before returning. The puffer fish slows Piecelings it touches while clamling inverts the controls of Piecelings it touches.

The next trap I created was the naval mines. The naval mines spawn randomly in an area that the Mapster selects and stun Piecelings that run into them. This trap is not mobile, but it covers a large area and denies space without being oppressive. Additionally, all of the mines will explode once the Piecelings run into one of them, so they won’t need to go through a minefield multiple times if they fail.

After creating the traps, I focused on attacks that would deny space from the Piecelings in alternative ways. First, I made the shark. The shark patrols around an abandoned pirate ship on a zig zag path, allowing smart players who observe the path to dodge it while slightly extending its reach away from the ship. When Piecelings collide with it, the shark will force them to run away.

Postmortem

Mapstermind was a success overall. I was able to integrate into the team very well after joining and truly make an environment of my own that displayed my strengths and enabled the strengths of the other members of the team. The traps and attacks I made in the Seafloor stage ended up creating a different experience from the City stage and even inspired some system changes to the City stage that created a more enjoyable and replayable experience for players.