A light-gun inspired time-trial shooter for Quest 2/3
My Work
- Created a dozen levels: Concepting through paper and grey-box design before iterating through to final populations and balance.
- Established core narrative pillars and characterization: Respectfully expanding the IP through deep research and appreciation for the IP’s merits.
- Guided and onboard juniors onto the project and team: Assisting in skill development, regular check-ins, and supporting them through the challenges of the project.
The Gameplay
There’s a brand new sport in Zombieland, and you’re its latest player. The Zombieland Four have built a series of zombie-infested race courses across Silicon Valley, challenging anyone to prove themselves the fastest zombie killer in Zombieland.
There are two systems the player can exploit to shave the seconds off their time:
- Gunplay; quickest way to kill a zombie is a headshot, careful aim and a steady hand means quick kills and a quicker time.
- Adrenaline; each weapon had a unique way of gaining Adrenaline — ie Bullet Time. Exploiting weapon combinations to slow time and the clock is a critical skill in topping the leaderboards.
Ultimately, this is an arcade game about chasing high scores and topping international leaderboards. Levels are played again and again, shaving milliseconds off your best time as you chase that top spot.
Designing Courses
Each level was structured around a series of Nodes that the player progressed through. With VR’s concerns of motion sickness and comfort, I developed detailed metrics for node placement that gave players a smooth and comfortable ride through each level.
Creatively, the challenge was how to make a rail-shooter engaging to navigate through. I achieved this by going back to the basics; layered spaces, contrasting lighting, and evolving environments kept each vista distinct.
And of course, there were always the z’s…
Designing Encounters
Driving the action of each level, encounters were hand-crafted and tuned to the millisecond. I adopted a rhythm game-like philosophy, timing each zombie spawn and path to give a satisfying chain of adrenaline-pumping headshots if the player was skilled enough.
Combining zombie types, encouraging weapon experimentation, and escalating challenge kept each level fresh, with the game’s structure heavily encouraging replaying levels to beat your previous high score.
Owen Bass 