Dine N’ Bash

Type: Team

Role: Level Designer, UI/UX Designer

Length: 7 months, Ended July 2024

Publisher: DigiPen Institute of Technology

Game overview

This single player, high paced food delivery game is bound to get you addicted. The player, a tavern keeper hoping to make it big in uncharted territory, must avoid angry customers’ projectiles while fulfilling oreders from picky customers. The simple food delivery and weapon dodge systems work well to keep the player on their toes for the entirety of each level

I joined this project 3.5 months into this 11 month project.

Title Art created by Bren Hermann

Play on Steam here!

Level Design

Whiteboards

Designing levels for a fixed camera with many moving parts proved to be a challenge. Pacing became the core of the level design as I tried to design for the projectiles flying about, character movement and speed, and customer placement.

Whiteboarding

Once I knew which mechanics and enemies to emphasize in each level, I quickly drew up mock ups on a whiteboard. note: UI, table, food station, available seat, potential obstructions, and trashcans are the focus of these thumbnails.

This happened later in the day so I went back to some of my designs to add more when I was about to leave.

The third level was the hardest to design for, as there was not much gamespace to work with. I tried a few combinations that I had to change due to a lack of screen space.

After finding some colliders to intersect unfavorably, I went back to the whiteboard to redesign the level to work better. I wrote out my goals for the level to focus the design

These were the final designs

Notice the Backgrounds getting progressively clean and luxurious.

The protagonist gains a customer base and, therefore wealth. I wanted to portray this subtly through dust, glass, furniture, and gold.

I worked in Tiled and often could not get the dimensions right without changing the scale. Here is a picture of the process of adjusting the furniture placement

Moving or

Fixed Camera?

Before we were set on the fixed camera, the team wanted to see if adding more gamespace by adding an extra section would add interest.

The original design was one-level, with a fixed camera. It was short and pleasant, but not as interesting to replay.

Though it seemed like a viable option to improve player experience, the camera’s movement between sections disoriented or overwhelmed players.

As a result, the player would choose to focus on one specific area and disregard the other.

Due to a lack of time and little manpower, we prioritized functionality of the existing, fixed camera. We took advantage of the fixed camera by creating multiple levels with unique layouts.

Reflection

I grew as a level designer and team member throughout this experience. I started working on this project shortly after workin on a team that did not value community, prioritizing product over mental health. This team was a stark contrast, holding 3 meetings a week, scheduling team work times, hosting moral events, and mediating conflicts. Because of our commradarie, everyones opinions were respected and valued which allowed for healthy production and an enjoyable end product.

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to work on this product and push myself to work creatively under constraints. Everyone did amazing work on this game!