Guanta-Gnomo
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1 v. 4 HTC Vive VR Battle Arena
48 hours (Nordic Game Jam 2016)
Game/Level/Sound Designer
9
Prototyped
About the Project
Guanta-Gnomo is an HTC Vive game, made during the Nordic Game Jam of 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Having equipped the HTC Vive headset and controllers, the game puts one player in the role of an Evil Gardener who has to prevent the gnomes, played by the (2-4) other PC players, from escaping his toolshed alive. The game was played by Epic's representative Jess Hider and awarded with Epic's Unreal Engine Award.
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Modified version of the poster I made for the game
Getting ideas across quickly is essential with little time
Our team, including the founders of DreamPunks
Modified version of the poster I made for the game
My Role and Responsibilities
During any Game Jam, it is important to stay as flexible as possible and help out wherever you can with the creation of the game. For this particular project, my role was mainly that of concept, sound and level designer.
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Jess hider Awarding Guanta-Gnomo
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I was responsible for the creation of the game's background music and was otherwise mainly involved with the creation of the game concept and the actual placement of shelves, objects and other platforms in the shed for the gnomes to walk across and hide behind. Additionally, I created the showcase video for the game.
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Key Lessons Learned
During the Game Jam, it really helped to be open to new challenges and to stay flexible regarding the ways in which I could contribute to the project. I ended up helping out in unexpected places and I think the team's working atmosphere really benefited from everyone helping out wherever they could. It was also a fun experience to be working on some other aspects of game development for a change, which is what Game Jams are perfectly suited for, in my opinion.
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The most valuable lesson I learned from working on the level design of the shed was that it can be extremely difficult to balance out the playing field for such an asymmetrical conflict. Not only did we want to make the game enjoyably challenging for the VR-player, but also for the multiple PC-players. Sometimes the smallest changes can really make a big difference, like cooldown time adjustments in the Gnomes' ability to turn to stone, slightly adjusting the gaps between platforms, moving the objects to hide behind, or even just changing their colour. Key to balancing this was a lot of playtesting to get things just right, which we definitely did not have enough time for during the jam. However, when we fully develop this project as a DreamPunks game in the future, I feel like it might end up having the biggest influence on the game's enjoyability. I am particularly interested in gaining more experience in game and level balancing, so this game is a great opportunity for me to hone my skills in those areas.
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