Role: Game Designer

Role: Game Designer

  I originally pitched this game as "Mountain Maker" and I designed it for the Kinect. The goal of the game was to teach children how mountains were made by allowing them to control the movement of tectonic plates.
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​- @Dannylv100

- In the original draft for the video I went into more detail about why my idea would have "saved snapchat". Originally I had a section where I mentioned that Snapchat was losing active users, whereas their competitor Instagram was gaining more and more. I cut this from the draft after I felt like it was going on too long. I wanted the video to be roughly 5 mins. The first draft had the video sitting at around nine.

​- Another small detail I left out of the video was that Snapchat contacted me maybe a week after I created the account. Which is a bit strange, but it could have just been a coincidence. 

- I was bummed out that the recruiter was pretty quick to shut me down. But after  few days I spoke with a friend who put me in contact with a programmer that became the person to help me work on the idea. 

- I spent roughly a month working with the programmer, we brainstormed and fleshed out ideas while trying to figure out a simple and effective way to demonstrate my idea so I could easily pitch it to snapchat. 

- I also wanted the idea to be safe, which is why the method for capturing ghosts was simply to take a picture. I didn't want players to become a hazard to others or endanger themselves. 

- If a player places ghosts in dangerous places repeatedly they will have their privileges revoked. Players can report ghosts that are breaking the rules. Also, cemeteries and other historical landmarks would be off limits and public locations would be able to opt out of the game.

- I wanted the app to be tied directly to snapchat, to be unmistakably Snapchat. Which is why the first thing I thought was, "The idea has to be centered around the mascot". The ghost isn't the only option, players could use their bitmoji, or any other Snapchat approved emojis.

- @Dannylv100
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  A few months ago I interviewed my friend, Rumme about his upcoming 3D platformer, Extricate. It just came out this week and if you love challenging platforming and insane speedrun course, this game will push your gaming skills to the limit! 

- @Dannylv100
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WATCH ON YOUTUBE!

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email me at dannylv100@gmail.com
Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

- @Dannylv100

  One thing I cut out from the video was a section where I talked about scope. I usually frame my videos from the perspective of "How would I design this game mode if I was sitting right there in the game design meeting?".

Since I was on a very tight deadline to get this video out on time, I completely cut the section that talks about scope. Essentially my mind set was that for this game mode, we're introducing four brand new characters for a once a year event, and it would be nonsensical to create 4 characters with completely unique abilities. My mindset was that for the purpose of PvE it would make sense to reuse and alter existing abilities from characters already in the game. Doing so would save time and resources. 

  One thing I wanted to do was add little bits of dialogue between the characters. For some reason, my youtube videos style typically consist of character cut outs talking to one another via word bubbles.  As a game designer, I don't just focus on the game mechanics, I think about how characters would interact, their motivations etc. 

 In order to write these little tidbits of dialogue, I made sure to find and read all available material on the characters. From the research I found that Casino was a Former F-1 driver. Whereas the rest of the squad were E-Sports athletes. From there I was able to come up with a basic idea of what their personalities would be.
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Casino - Confident and a little cocky. The only pilot without and E-sports background.
D.Mon - A more aggressive counterpart to D.va
King - A rivial to D.va during their pro-gaming career. He is serious and focused, always trying to stay one step ahead.
Overlord - Tech savvy, friendly and gentle. Cares deeply about his squad and helping others. 

  When designing the ultimates, It was important to keep in mind that not every ultimate is meant to do damage, there are some ultimates in the game that are defensive. With a PvE event as combat heavy as this one, I wanted to make sure two of the characters were defensive.
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D.va - Type: Defensive - Creates a large dome of defense matrix, destroying incoming projectiles. The dome would be twice as big as Winston's shield. This ultimate is last for 6 seconds.
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King - Type: DPS - King flies straight into the air and does a 360 degree spin at a moderate pace, he fires all of his weapons, while locking on to any exposed enemy. This ultimate will last 4 seconds and is effective at clearing out mobs of enemies.
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Casino - Type: Offensive DPS - This ultimate would be best for doing a lot of damage over a short amount of time. Perfect for destroying more powerful enemies in a pinch.
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D.mon - Type: Offensive - This ultimate is great for drawing attention away from the rest of the team. D.mon can also use this ability to easily knock away Octopus omnics. The damage reduction and shield passive allows D.mon to soak up insane amounts of damage. Don't be afraid to use this ultimate ability to jump into entrenched enemy positions, knocking them around and drawing their fire. Pairs very well with Overlord's ultimate ability. 
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Overlord - Type: defensive - This ultimate is a great counter against the onslaught of missiles that one ore more squid omnics may use against the player. This is a great way to protect your entire team in one move, and counter attack with their charged up weapons.  This ultimate boosts the damage output by 30% and for every bit of extra damage exceeding 100 points, it will add another 1%. This ultimate lasts 5 seconds. 

  I had a few people ask me what the specific cooldowns were for each ability. I cut this from the video because, it is something I thought about including, yet it seemed to be a bit of padding when there is no way to test and balance these abilities in a PvE setting. So I cut this segment from the video. However if you are curious I will post the tentative cooldowns for each of the new MEKA characters down below, as D.Va would be unchanged, aside from her ultimate.
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King
Proximity Mine  - 6 seconds
Lock-On Missiles - 8 seconds
Recon Dart - 12 seconds

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email me at dannylv100@gmail.com
Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

- @Dannylv100