SUPERTAG
GAME OVERVIEW
SuperTag is a fast-paced first-person game where players play a competitive 1 vs 1 game of tag in different arenas with parkour movements and a grappling hook. The player takes control of a participant in this virtual reality game that takes place every 4 years as a new addition to the Olympic games. The rules are simple: Tag your opponent by outmaneuvering them to claim victory!
DEVELOPMENT INFOS
Role - Level and Game Designer
Time - 4 months (2021 - 2022)
Team size - 6
Genre - First Person versus Pakour Game
Type of project - School project
Tech - Unreal 4
Platform - PC (2 players)
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Creating and implementing the level “The Penta”.
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Creating the tutorial level.
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Tweaking the different levels and creating a metric map.
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Implementing graphic assets.​​​
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Managing the team.
DESIGN OVERVIEW
As a level designer I had to design a full map that let’s the player master our controller. Me and the other level designer began by creating a metrics map and discussing our different ideas.
My first idea was to make a giant tower in the middle of the map that could serve as a small labyrinth and a large circle surrounding it so that the player could turn around the point of interest and cut through it. I made a first draft on paper then in Unreal :
First map blockout
But after some reflection, the big tower was not a good idea. We assumed the players would tend to hide inside and that could lead to a strategy that we didn’t want.
I scraped the map and began a new one. I tried to keep the outer ring that brings a sense of flow. I kept it but I redesigned the middle part of the map so it could be used as a shortcut to gain distance or to outmaneuver the opponent with different obstacles.
That was the result in Unreal after numerous paper schemes :
Second map
I worked on the 4 cardinal points. The goal was to make each one of them accessible from a minimum of 3 directions and offer a panel of options for the player, no matter their role. I see them as 4 different workshops that can be approached and used differently according to the situation.
Cardinal points
One of the problems of this iteration was the fact that it didn’t have enough points to change the player's high level. Aside from the grappling hook points, a few ways could be used to climb to another level. So I decided to put new elements to wall climb or wall run, I also moved some of the old grappling points and deleted the third level to end up with this map :
Final map
To summarize, the circle acts as a track that the players can follow. Each player can use the middle part of the map or the 4 cardinal points to take advantage of the terrain and outmaneuver their opponent. Everything except those cardinal points can be compared to shortcuts full of obstacles to lose your opponent.
One other thing about the grappling hook points: they are placed in a way so that players can use them in three cases :
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Access a new level (that means going up or down)
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Replace themself on the map or escape/follow their opponent
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Rebuild speed after a bad manoeuver
For the tutorial, I wrote down all the mechanics that the player would encounter. I sorted them by priority before designing a workshop for each one of them that forces the player to use the mechanic, and by extension, to learn it. Each workshop comes with a little instruction to follow. I had to iterate on it after feedback from playtesters: it was related to the order of the different workshops most of the time, otherwise it was related to the difficulty or the instruction.
Wall run workshop
POST MORTEM
WHAT WENT WELL :
The concept was really risky but we took our chance.
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It was our first full game made on Unreal, we had to learn this brand new tool for developing games.
WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL :
We had a concept based on a smooth parkour controller, with a multiplayer aspect and we used a new tool. All these elements brought different problems during the production.
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We had to rescope the project due to problems that appeared during the production phase.
FINAL THOUGHTS :
We took the risk to develop a game with a lot of new elements (first-person parkour controller, multiplayer replication, unreal blueprint and BSP ) on Unreal and it helped us learn a lot in different fields. In the end we produced a game that meets our final expectations.