Tech Cowboy

Tech Cowboy is a Top-Down survival shooter built by 2 people in Unreal Engine 5 during the Epic Games' 2023 Game Jam. I was in charge of visualising the game, creating a playable level, models and visual effects, some minor UI/HUD interface, as well as the trailer below.

My co-dev and I set out to design a game that may be finished within the Game Jam deadline of 1 week, due to our lack of experience at that time, we aimed for something more simplistic, while trying to stay true to the theme of the Game Jam - 'Antiquated Future'.

We sat down inside Figma tool and brainstormed various ideas on what the words "Antiquated Future" meant for both of us. We had various ideas ranging from puzzle based games with time-travelling mechanics, to fighting game with quick time events and roguelike elements. However, we decided to stray away from these complex ideas that may be proven difficult to make "fun" and "enjoyable" experiences from.

Our vision in TechCowboy started with an idea of mecha-aliens and a cowboy that defends his town from an alien invasion. The players' goal is to fight against these enemies, gain points in return and use them to upgrade his own abilities to fight off the increasing waves of aliens.

For player's to feel engaged, we tried our best to create an impactful and flashy abilities, sound and visual effects.

Due to personal time constraints, I opted to use ready made assets such as the Environment and Player Character and animations, and in turn, spend most of my time creating an enjoyable map for the player to play in.

I wanted to avoid making a generic, arena style map that a lot of people have seen or expect from these types of games. So I aimed to create a believable setting for our environment, that fit our theme.
The map was created with a few important aspects

• Avoid clastraphobic areas - as this can lead to player feeling restrictive on where they can move.
• Make the environment feel believable and fit the Game Jam theme.
• Reduce repetitiveness in the environment.
• Give the player many unique and interesting spaces to explore and play around in.

Enemies were modelled inside Maya, while keeping a low poly look. I came up with 3 archetypes for the enemies (wanted 4, but didn't have enough time):
• The Bomber - 4 legged spider looking robot bug that rushes to the player and explodes when comes into contact or destroys, dealing damage to the surrounding enemies where possible.
• Sniper - Robotic eye that charges a laser shot that flies at fast speeds. Keeps relatively long distance away from the player.
• Drone - Neon drone mounted with a laser gun that shoots at the player when close.

Each enemy was modelled, rigged and animated with 2-3 different animations such as idle, pursuit and death.

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get much user feedback due to not many people playing our game. However, one feedback that we've received talked about some visual clutter that is seen from enemies - specifically how their shadow made it hard for the player to spot them. Additionally, how the camera was zoomed out so far that the player seemed too small.

These issues can be fixed by:

• Use a UI/visual indicator on the players screen to help them spot where the enemies are - either through an outline, or a marker that shows the direction of the closest enemy.

From our extensive playtesting during and after production, we concluded that our main focus should have been making the combat feel more fun and engaging, as that is what the player does for 99% of the time.
Examples of this could be creating more diverse abilities, enemies that pose a challenge or allow the player to create diverse strategies with their own playable character.