What is it?

Rockin Llamas is a llama themed zombie game where as you fight through hoards of zombie llamas you find pedals to give your weapon new effects and collect amps to boost your stats. This project was made to prove that I, accompanied by 5 of my peers, could independently create a proof of concept game that provided a few minutes of fun with no game breaking issues.

How I Contributed:

In this project I was responsible for all level design tasks, and the creation and implementation of 90% of environment assets.

Originally the map was planned to include home interiors as well as backyards, however this was eventually scaled down since we determined it would be difficult to achieve with only one primary 3D artist.

I also created a blockout for a potential labratory level, however this was also ruled out due to being out of scope for the project.

What I Learned:

I believe this project helped me grow as a Game Artist and Level Designer in 2 main ways:

1. Taught me to be aware of scope

   This was something I had to learn twice in this project. Originally the map planned to include home interiors and back yards with unique connections between them however, being the main artist for the team with another programmer only occasionally taking up art tasks meant we likely wouldn't have the time to fill out the full space. Eventually we decided to scale back the playable area to just the front lawns of the cul-de-sac. Later in the project, since I was running out of ways to substantively improve the cul-de-sac I decided to create a basic laboratory level white-box, however with the deadline approaching we decided to abandon the extra level to instead polish and work out any bugs on the cul-de-sac level

2. Taught me the importance of iterative work

   This was something my professors always talked about, but this project really solidified it. Without working in medium sized increments we may not have realized the issues with the initial level designs, however since we had basic white-boxes of what we wanted we were able to consistently test as we developed so that bugs and issues could be addressed before we reached a final version.