Game Trailer
The Kovach Test was a 3 week game jam that I started at the beginning of my 3rd year of University.
In total we had 6 members and were competing against 5 other teams.
At the end of the 3 weeks we had to purpose our game to, Gary Napper the Game Director at Supermassive Games.
This was not only a fantastic way to start the year but a brilliant way to get feedback especially as a level designer.
Half way through the project we also had the pleasure of getting feedback from ex-student Peter Field who now works at Media Molecule and previous worked at Naughty Dog.
The game jam theme was "new perspective" and I was appointed lead level designer along side Lead Artist Nicola Hynes.
Our team was VERY art heavy, so we wanted to make a game based more around atmosphere and environment rather than something mechanically heavy.
The Kovach test is a horror game based on making moral decisions in the heat of the moment, choosing between two very hard decisions and seeing the outcomes roll out in front of you.
This was a very fun project to design for and was truly a brilliant experience.
Role
During the course of this project I was appointed Lead level design, this is a list of the responsibility's I was in charge of during the 3 weeks.
-
Team management and schedule.
-
Lead level design level construction.
-
Mechanics Design.
-
Main Narrative Designer.
-
Music, Sound effects and voice recording.
-
Script Writing.
-
Ensuring the modellers knew what assets were needed.
-
Making sure all deadlines are met on time.
Game Mechanics
The game is very light on the mechanics side due to the fact that 60% of our team were artists, so we wanted to make a game that would showcase their skills just as much as everyone else.
This meant a few things:
-
Most the level design had to be through visual direction, audio cues and lighting.
-
Audio played a huge part in the game and as the sound designer I had to learn a lot of new techniques and software to keep up.
-
The base mechanics the player has is walk, interact and crouch.
-
Later in the level there is a flashlight the player can use to guide them through darkened areas.
We knew the game was going to be an atmospheric horror experience, so we came to the decision to make the horror come from the players actions.
The core game-play loop is that the player is faced with moral decisions and has to pick between the two, this also brought in the fact that the narrative design I made had to be interesting and not to bore the player considering large sections of the game take place in this scenarios.
The Kovach Test Gameplay Video
