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Group Project (Team of 5)
3 Months
Producer
Programmer, Visual Effect Artist
Unity Engine
C#
About
Overflow is a puzzle platformer game where players assume the role of a water droplet attempting to escape a beach house while solving puzzles based on household objects. It was a professional summer project that I worked on with a team of five and was published by Octopus Studios. As the Producer for the project, I led the team through the development process and served as the primary liaison between Octopus 8 Studios' leadership and the rest of the team.
Overflow Trailer
Here is a short gameplay trailer I created to showcase Overflow!
Conceptualisation
During the first week of the project, as a team we needed to develop a concept. As the producer, it was my task to lead the team's initial design direction. At the end of the week we needed to present our concept to the heads of the studio.
The initial concept revolved around the player controlling a sentient water droplet that has the ability to change states. Each state would correspond with a state of matter such as gas or liquid, with each state providing the player with a different ability.
Once this week was over, we began designing the game further, this stage was led by the Lead Designer.
Producer Duties
With the Lead Designer busy with design work, my duty as the producer was to create a weekly schedule to ensure productivity. To do this, I used Scrumwise and created a sprint for each week.
In order to create these sprints, I used my knowledge of game development cycles to create development stages. These stages include, planning, production, testing and polishing.
Each week, I assigned tasks to the Designer, Programmer, 3D Modeller and 2D Artist. I used Scrumwise to estimate how long each task would take. As a team, we managed to successfully complete all eight sprints with no failure
Water Shaders
Along side the pitch, our team also presented a prototype I created to showcase the water shader effects for our main character.
I created custom water shader using the Visual Effects Graph found in the Unity Engine. I used this to create a transparent water material that would vibrate like water. I then created a water trail effect using Unity's particle system.
For the entirety of the project, I was in charge of creating custom shaders and materials for the project. This includes the Ice Shader that is used for the main character's solid state and the Gas particle system used for the main character's gas state.
Ocean Physics and Underwater Effects
The main goal of Overflow was for the player to flood the beach house they are trapped in. We needed a water physics system that mimicked the ocean. As the water level rises, objects in the house would gradually float depending on their weight.
Using the Unity Engine, I created a water physics system that simulated the Ocean. All objects that had a rigidbody component could float once they enter the water. I also created a post-processing effect to mimic vision underwater. To polish this up, I added waves to the water as well as water caustics when the player is underwater.
Water Particle System
In order to flood the house, the player will need to destroy and tamper with appliances around the house to cause them to flood water. To display this I created various particle systems that would mimic water flowing or bursting out of objects.
To do this I used the Unity Particle System to create particle effects that would emit small spheres with a water material. I attached a trail to each particle to show motion of water.
