Kyle Elam
Game Designer
20XX Maxx
Combat Designer
Company:
Independent - 6 members
Tenure:
15 months
Tools:
Unity, C#, Git
Company:
Tenure:
Tools:
Overview
Imagine the greatest tournament you’ve ever seen, the greatest in the millennium. High speed, high stakes. People have assembled the most souped-up vehicles to wreck the other competition and deliver their ruined pieces to designated zones around the map. Now, imagine that times 100 and you’d have the 20XX MAXX.
20XX MAXX is a local multiplayer class-based vehicle shooter with Free-For-All Kill Confirmed style gameplay for Xbox One.
My Roles & Ownerships
• Combat System - core mechanics, balance, controls
• Class Design - prototyping, mind maps, iteration
• UI/UX - mockups, animations, implementation,
• Led development of 5 character classes, personally implementing from paper prototype to in the Unity engine.
• Programmed a delegate based input system to manage input for up to 4 different players.
• Implemented UI navigation system for controller to access all menus including character selection.
• Guided vision for the design through the formation of 5 combat pillars and creation of the initial gameplay prototypes.
• Drafted narrative dossiers to give each class thorough backgrounds and help immerse players into the world.
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Gem Storm
Gem Storm went through 3 major iterations. The initial concept was for a precise sniper who'd select between 3 gems depending on the situation. This was too much for characters to keep track of in the heat of battle so I tried buffing them and even combining all 3, yet players still were not engaged.
From that prototype, I decided to test charging mechanics. After shooting a few times, each of the gems became a turret. Though we implemented this initially, I realized it was heavily against the combat design pillars and had to begin the final Gem Storm iteration.
Release Gem Storm had a primary fire very similar to what it had always been, focused on long range shots but with a much thinner hitbox. The secondary fired 3 precise arrays of lasers from above. After successfully hitting an enemy, the gems would charge. Charging all 3 gems changed the secondary into an unhinged barrage of rapid diamond explosions. This provided players with a more immediate and direct result of successful shots with much greater payoff. I still kept a lot of the initial concepts such as gem switching, now automatic, but evolved other ideas such as destruction from the beauty that is a gem. I gave player much needed agency on whether to waste charges early or save up for a more confirmed kill with the complete ability.
Scorch
As the name implies, Scorch is our fire based unit. He's always had a flamethrower primary and an oil-based secondary. I spent a large amount of time tuning the flamethrower to get the feel right such as making the hitboxes expand properly from the beginning of the barrel and making it trail behind to give that feeling of momentum.
Hunter Car
Gem Storm went through 3 major iterations. The initial concept was for a precise sniper who'd select between 3 gems depending on the situation. This was too much for characters to keep track of in the heat of battle so I tried buffing them and even combining all 3, yet players still were not engaged.
Abilities
Gem Storm went through 3 major iterations. The initial concept was for a precise sniper who'd select between 3 gems depending on the situation. This was too much for characters to keep track of in the heat of battle so I tried buffing them and even combining all 3, yet players still were not engaged.
Targeting
Gem Storm went through 3 major iterations. The initial concept was for a precise sniper who'd select between 3 gems depending on the situation. This was too much for characters to keep track of in the heat of battle so I tried buffing them and even combining all 3, yet players still were not engaged.
