Poppy Playtime Chapter 3

Technical Designer

Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 is the third entry in a mascot horror series. This chapters main antagonist is CatNap who is a giant cat that can spew out gas that makes anyone who inhales it hallucinate. Try to find your way out while uncovering the secrets behind how the owner of the factories used children as experiments.

I worked with a team of 3-4 programmers to recreate the core systems of chapter 1 & 2 while making them more systemic for future reuse. For a majority of the project I was the only designer and would work with the director to help make every encounter with the monstrous toys memorable and unique. Most art teams came from a history of making youtube animated music videos so I had to help establish pipelines for game development assets while also getting them more involved with UE5 so they had a better understanding of how to verify assets in game.

  • UE5

  • C++

  • Blueprints

 

    • Worked with the director to create his original concept for it and further refine the gameplay loop

    • Work with Tech Art, 2D Art, and Animation to work on effects to sell the paranoia

    • Write design documents to help keep all teams working on it aligned

    • Host playtests and record feedback

    • Video of the encounter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHHJkoqqK0

    • Create a level where the player enters the "Playcare", a run down abandoned preschool that has a broken life sized doll that chases the player

    • Weeping Angel inspired AI that only moves towards the player when out of sight or when the lights are out

    • Use animation notifies to make sure she always ended while both feet were planted

    • Write up documents on all of the encounters SFX, VFX, and other Tech Art Requirements

    • Work with the Lighting team to make a component that could be reused for tweaking lights through level scripting or hard called code functions

    • Video of the encounter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjjK8PBoJm4

    • Prototype out small popcorn enemies that will chase the player and try lunge at them

    • Create custom navlink proxy children for level designers to have a better visual on how they work

    • Work with VFX Artists and Tech Art to convert their meshs and animations to lower cost VFX to allow for over a dozen to be on screen at once

    • Create custom spawner nodes that made it eaiser to visualize for Level Designers

    • Create a design document for a programmer to see through the polish and further iterations

    • Video of the encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lM3rn5t-0M

    • Create functions to help with playing in game cutscenes with player interaction

    • Contribute to puzzle systems that made iteration on puzzles easier and faster

    • Make tools to allow for animations to play out when looking at a specific trigger

    • Create custom triggers that would seamlessly teleport players to give the effect of an endless hallway

    • Step up when the lead designer moved to another project by keeping design docs up to date, attending weekly lead meetings, and coordinating through any blockers with production

    • Host reviews and playtests to iterate on puzzles and general gameplay layouts

    • Shift around mechanics from different levels to ensure gameplay stayed as fresh as possible