Despicable Me: The Game released July 2010. I am currently trying to get videos together of some of the puzzle I made. See the Design Documents section to a get a look at some of my puzzle ideas.

Level 1:

What I did for this level:
* Level Layout – Paper layout of level, with initial game flow.
* Combat Design – Design how each combat encounter would happen in the level.

Download the design doc in either .PDF / .DOC:

Video Notes:

0:00: The team decided to have the tutorial spread out through the first section of Level 1. We chose points where the item being taught would be the most useful. Shooting into background was the only one we wanted to teach immediately since it was a different element of combat for a 2D shooter.

3:12: The encounter was designed for the player to have fun killing the enemies in different ways. The pattern for the enemies is easy to pick up. This gave the player time to try out grenade melees and other attacks for dealing with the basic enemy type.

4:32: The enemies in the background had issues of dying too quickly. To prevent this, I decided to increase the intensity of the left and right enemies attacks. This forced the player to keep his main focus on the foreground action.

8:03: The openness of this area gave me the opportunity to have the enemies move down random point paths. This gave the enemies more survivalbility since they weren’t bound to one path.

10:25: I wanted to make the small room size feel even more claustrophobic for combat. To give this feeling, I had 2 Scu-bots move in at once and slowly reduce the space the player could move. This gave some urgency to defeating the Scu-bots so not to get pinned in and killed.

Notes on Level 2:

What I did for this level:
* Level Layout – Paper layout of level, with initial game flow.
* Combat Design – Design how each combat encounter would happen in the level.

Video Notes:

0:16: The fish were originally planned to be smaller used in groups. Later, the team decided it’d be more humorous to have one big fish try to eat Matt, and he would have to shoot his way out of the fish’s belly. This also meant placing him carefully so his attack would not start in the middle of a firefight with a large group of enemies.

1:43: This encounter is a medium difficulty encounter. After much playtesting, I was able to achieve a balance for spawning the enemies’ entrys so the player has to keep moving but the amount of attacks at one time was not overwhelming. I would use this as reference to what a good balanced encounter should feel like, then tweak as needed on an encounter by encounter basis.

2:04: The split path was kept in-camera so that during multiplayer sessions each player could take a different path and gain different items.

4:02: The docks section was tricky because there was no vertical camera lock. A player could potentially run right by this entire area without pause. This meant he could see the pirate pole climbers spawning into the level. To get around this, I used a shield skeleton and stationary shooters to slow the player down to give time for the other pirates to spawn.

Level 4:

What I did for this level:
* Level Layout – Paper layout of level, with initial game flow.
* Combat Design – Design how each combat encounter would happen in the level.

Download the design doc in either .PDF /.DOC

Video Notes:

0:05: One of the things I love about 2-D shooters is how they have enemies at the start that allow you to take free shots. This simple trick is nice because it gets the player ready to fight ahead of them.

4:30: The player has to hold this point for the length of the enemy attack. The setup of this area has most enemies coming from the right and left. I decided to swarm the player with runners, shooters, and bikers to force the player to leave the control point. To help balance the combat, I gave him a flamethrower. If enemies capture the point, Air Drones would spawn in and attack as a penalty to the player.

6:30: The Train section originally was planned to have a stopped encounter at each car. I found that this slowed down the pace too much and decided to have only four stopped encounters on the train, after doing some playtesting. The increased pace received more positive feedback than the initial setup.

7:34 The tanker car was a tough car to balance. I wanted to have the 2 sections explode, but getting the right damage amount took some time. The final result was to have a stronger tank, so players didn’t feel cheated if it exploded on them.

Level 6:

What I did for this level:
* Level Layout – Paper layout of level, with initial game flow.
* Combat Design – Design how each combat encounter would happen in the level.

Download the design doc in either .PDF / .DOC

Video Notes:

0:19: For the first area of this level, Brian( another Designer) and I tried to give the player as many paths as we could. We placed pits to open up to new areas below.

1:47: The caves were used as a way to introduce 2 new enemy types: Ice Bats and Mutant Penguins. I designed the combat so that players can get used to the patterns of these two new enemy types without too much distraction from other enemies.

2:28: This encounter surprised many people the first time. Showing the Yeti in the previous area, then allowing the player to believe he was safe from it in the new area, gave the players a positive surprise that didn’t seem unfair.

8:02: I reduced the speed of the enemies coming in from the left and right greatly. The background fire from the turrets and enemies forced the player to concentrate on the challenge of weaving through the bullets rather than mowing down enemies.

Sharked Up Tier 2 (Vector’s Lair, Lvl 4):

Description:
* Gru’s mission is to escape the puzzle room. While this may seem easy at first glance, there are 3 very hungry sharks who disagree with this idea.

Download the design doc with step-by-step descriptions in either .PDF or .DOC

Video Notes:

0:12: This is an example of what happens if you try to just walk to the exit without blocking the sharks.

1:09: The Ice Stack prevents the Balloon minion from blowing all the way over into the spike wall.

1:19: The raised ceiling keeps the Balloon minion out of the fan’s area of effect. This prevents the Balloon minion from getting blown into the spike wall.

2:38: All of the pistons in the game will return to their starting position unless the player uses something to make them stay in place.

3:35: Gru can now make a safe exit.

Final Drain (Vector’s Lair, Lvl 4):

Description:
* The exit seems too easy: just drop down and out you go. What Gru doesn’t know is that the ceiling above the exit is long enough to make the platform unreachable. Add in the fact that the pit below is full of deadly lasers, and Gru’s easy exit is now an easy death.

Download the design doc with step-by-step descriptions in either .PDF or .DOC

Video Notes:

0:03: The first pit was placed in the level to show that filling up the pit with water was a possible action in the game.

0:27: I told the environment artist to mark the exact spot the player would have to place the trampolines to bounce the bombs into the barriers. This would prevent the players from losing their patience by having to take multiple guesses to get to the correct spot.

1:46: Another reason to mark the floor was to prevent accidental deaths with the bombs.

2:42: The QA department for this game found another solution instead of the Ice Block. They found that you can also place a trampoline in the water and use that to get to the exit. I decided to keep that in the game as an alternate solution for the final obstacle.

Hydraulic Puzzle Tier 2 (Vector’s Lair, Lvl 3):

Description:
* Gru must escape this puzzle room. He is blocked: this time the exit is too high to reach, even if he uses his wind gun to double jump.

Download the design doc with step-by-step descriptions in either .PDF or .DOC

Video Notes:

1:15: The idea of making the exit unreachable even with double jumping caused this puzzle room to be extremely tall. This created many camera issues when trying to show what was going on in the puzzle room. This was solved with play-testing and scripting to get the correct camera placement.

2:17: The second electric box powered the trap doors allowing them to open and close.

2:28: Gru can now reach the exit of the puzzle room.

Levels:
– Level 4: Hatchery
– Level 7: Spaceship
– Level 8: Towers

General info:

Ben can transform into five different aliens to fight off his enemies:

• – Swampfire (plant-humanoid shaped alien that can throw fire and smells like swamp gas)
• – Bigchill (moth like Ice Alien, moves quickly, and can float in the air.)
• – Jetray (Sting ray looking Alien, Extremely fast, aquatic, flying)
• – SpiderMonkey (monkey alien but has 6 arms and 2 legs, can shoot webs, does whatever a spider monkey alien can.)
• – Humongosaur (Large, slow moving, orange, t-rex, like alien, can grow to 60ft tall)

During certain portions of the game the player will also take control of Kevin (who can absorb and turn his body into any surface he touches.) and Gwen (who has telekinetic like abilities) as they assist Ben on the task at hand. Throughout this page, I will be describing what is going on in each section as well as some fun facts about each level from the development side.

Click on the large images below for a detailed map to follow along with the level descriptions.




Level 4: Hatchery

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Road to Town and Suburbs | Downtown | Hidden Hatchery

This level took place in a small town that has a hidden hatchery. Ben was searching for one of the items needed to create a device that would supposedly stop the Highbreeds’ plans, which was hidden in that hatchery.

Road to town and Suburbs:



(A) The level begins outside of town. After crossing the destroyed bridge as Jetray, Ben finds himself in a suburb infested with DNAliens.

(B) As he battles his way through the peaceful suburbia, he has an opportunity to use Swampfire’s special attack to gain access to a secret area with an ability upgrade.

(C) After conquering the suburbs, Ben progresses to the Downtown section of the level.

Fun Facts:

• *The broken bridge (A) was designated as a Jetray jump. However, with a well timed jump with Bigchill, you could make it to the first platform from the road’s edge.
• *The combat arena collision would lead to co-op bugs where one player would not be able to enter the area because the wall went up in front of him. This was fixed by teleporting the player into the arena.
• *There is a truck placed near the traffic circle that used to read Joe’s Plumbing; however, it had to be removed due to potential lawsuits.








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Downtown:



(A) Ben’s battle takes to the rooftops as more DNAlien workers and soldiers come to prevent him from getting to the hatchery.

(B) The roads of the town have been destroyed as the aliens begin to remodel the town to their preferred look.

(C) After destroying the radio tower to get past the last crater, Ben returns to the streets to continue his fight.
(D) The road blocks created from the chaos of the town force him to make a new route with SpiderMonkey to progress.

(E) After a thrashing from the DNAliens on the lawn of City Hall, Ben learns from Gwen that the hatchery is hidden underneath the fountain. Destroying it, he jumps down to find his needed item.

Fun Facts:

• *This section of the level was supposed to lead to a High School section. Due to the length of the level and time constraints, it was cut.
• *The blue car in the parking lot (A) was originally supposed to be away from the building. The puzzle had Humongosaur carry the car over so been could reach the balcony to the roof. This changed due to the removal of his ability to pick up objects and throw them.







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The Hidden Hatchery:



(A) Having infiltrated the hatchery, Ben fights his way through the security swarms. There is some minor platforming as he moves his way across large generator pistons and floats using the ventilation fans as Bigchill.

(B) A few battles later, he arrives in the final room. Ben must activate all 3 switches within a 30 second time frame, in order to remove the object he seeks from the machine on the ceiling. To prevent this, waves of DNAliens attack after each switch is hit.

Fun Facts:

• *You’ll notice on the top view map many large trigger planes (C). The enemies in this section had a bug where they would go through the invisible collision that was supposed to keep them in the arena while standing near the foreground edge. These trigger planes made sure all enemies that slipped through the collision died so the game could progress.
• *The doors (D) created interesting bugs in this level. The first was due to the pipeline structure. Humongosaur’s model was not made yet when the levels were completed. Once his model went through the doors in all levels, he had to be re-sized so he could fit. The second was a co-op bug where players would get trapped on the other side. This was fixed the same way as the combat arena collision, by teleporting the second player inside.








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Level 7: Spaceship

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Engine Room | Ship Hatchery | Coolant Room

Ben sneaks into a Highbreed spaceship in hopes of stopping their evil plans. Ben believes that if he launches the Spaceship, the towers will power down to prevent their activation.

Engine Room:


(A) Ben enters the ship from the engine room, which has 3 floors (left to right: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor). As he fights his way through, he finds an override panel for the Ship’s auto pilot. Ben must find the rest of these panels to launch the ship.

(C) Before he does that, he must first power up the elevator, which has been shut down due to his appearance on the ship.

(B) To do this, Ben stands on the large pressure plates as Humongosaur. Ben has to reactivate the power on each floor.

(D) After doing so on the third floor, Ben is able to gain access to a teleporter that takes him to the next part of the ship.

Fun Facts:

• *Players were having trouble find there way in this section of level 7. To deal with this, we had some of the doors become locked passing through them or by completing tasks in a room. This made it easier for the players navigate.








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Ship Hatchery:



(A, A1)The Hatchery is a more straight forward area. Ben makes use of the special skills of Spider Monkey (wall climbing).

(B) Ben also requires the skills of Bigchill (air float) as well to continue.

(C) He also has to leap through spinning Gyro rings doing god knows what for nerferious evil purposes for the Highbreed.

(D) After causing enough damage at this location, Ben can use Jetray to access the secret area.

(E) As Ben continues on his quest to thwart the Highbreed, he finds the second control panel to override the autopilot. To access this panel, he must first cool down the boiling water standing in his way. Ben has to destroy the nearby generators columns, which causes the water to freeze.

(F) Once the second panel is activated, Ben soldiers on to fight in the expanding arena. This combat encounter starts on the small center circle. As Ben defeats the waves, the arena grows wider. Ben can make the jump to the next area, after the Arena is fully expanded.

(G) Ben battles on to the teleporter taking him to the Coolant Rooms for the ship.

Fun Facts:

• *The camera system wasn’t able to zoom in and out, this made the Spidermonkey wall climb sections more challenging due to the limited camera view.
• *The water freezing puzzle (E) was originally going to require Bigchill using his ice breath special to freeze the water after destroying the generators. However, there was no code that could be used to check to see if the ice breath special had been used on the water.













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Coolant Room:



(A) Ben arrives at a large room filled with a water like substance that is used to keep the spaceship Ice cold. After a quick fist-a-cuffs with security, Ben takes the moving bridges to each island.

(B) He then finds himself before a snaking hallway full of pistons that he must get through. Correct timing and Jetray’s speed allows Ben to get by this section without a hitch.

(C) Arriving at another large room of “water”, Ben notes quickly that the large fans are blowing air strong enough to push him off the platforms. To make matters worse, security doesn’t seem to mind risking their own well being to stop him. By transforming into Humongosaur, Ben gives himself the mass to keep from sliding off and the muscle to pound the DNAliens.

(D) After surviving another perilous piston, Ben arrives at the last room. He see that only 2 platform stand in his way and the final teleporter to the boss arena.

Fun Facts:

• *Jetray’s jump is long enough it can make the jumps to each island in the first room (A).
• *The enemies in the fan room (B) can’t actually fall off the edge. Since the AI wasn’t smart enough to keep itself on the platform, collision was placed on the platforms to prevent them from falling. Due to the short production schedule, there wasn’t enough time to code in a fix.







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Level 8: Towers

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Kevin Section | Gwen Section | Towers

Ben, Kevin and, Gwen battle to destroy the 3 towers built by the Highbreed in order to permanently change the earth’s atmosphere.

Kevin Section:



(A) Kevin is not too pleased that their plans to stop the Highbreed aren’t working. Since Ben’s spaceship idea backfired, it’s time to bust some heads. Rushing in Kevin touches a special object that allows him to absorb that material. Kevin is now ready to fight his way through the legions of enemies.

(B) The one man army approach is working well, until he sees the giant turret targeting him. Glancing around, he spies the 3 power crystals charging the turret. Kevin proceeds to clear a path through the enemies to destroy each crystal. He is also careful to dodge the barrage of shots the turret occasionally fires.

(C) 2 deactivated turrets later, Kevin finds himself looking at another 2 power crystals. The crystal behind a shield wall looks different and appears to be connected to the main towers. The second is keeping the shield wall powered up. Busting the second crystal and K.O.ing the final guards, Kevin gains access to smash the first crystal to dust.

Fun Facts:

• *You don’t actually have to destroy the crystals yourself. If you stand behind them, the turret will shoot and destroy them for you.
• *Kevin can absorb three types of material in the game, wood, metal, and stone.






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Gwen Section:



(A) To Gwen, charging into the thick of battle isn’t the best smartest idea, but sometimes it the only option you have. Good thing she’s a martial artist and has telepathic like alien powers. Besides allowing her to take on a large amount of enemies, her powers also give her the ability to glide across large pits…something that came in handy during this fight.

(B) After clearing the first section of guards Gwen discovers that not 1 but 2 of the same security turrets are in place and aiming right for her. Using her shield to block the turret fire, Gwen destroys the power crystals and continues on her way.

(C) Another turret and a few fits later, Gwen spies her goal, the crystal powering the tower. Soundly defeating the DNAliens nearby Gwen glides over the chasm and shatters the final crystal.

Fun Facts:

• *Gwen’s powers got hit with the nerf bat when the design team noted many of her moves were more powerful than Ben’s alien forms attacks and combos. Most of her special attacks were one hit killing enemies.






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Towers:



(A) Having returned from the spaceship, Ben begins his rampage to the destroy the towers as the 60 ft. Humongosaur. Methodically destroying all the turrets and shock plates, he smashes the tip of the tower, causing the whole tower to overload and topple over. Seeing what he has to do to the other towers, he continues around the tower facility counter-clockwise.

(B) Before Ben can continue on to the to each tower he has to first take out more power crystals that create large shield walls around the towers’ bases. Transforming to his other forms, Ben dispatches the guards and smashes the crystals preventing his access to the second and third towers.

Fun Facts:

• *By the end of the project, the development staff and QA could complete the entire game without blocking, except for tower 2 in level 8. Can’t let a good button go to waste…
• *The tower tips have to be interacted with to destroy them instead of smashing them yourself. This was due to the lag (about 8 to 10 seconds) in loading the cinematic after destroying the tower tip.







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