Project
ARKTIKA.1
Oculus Rift launch title developed by 4A Games
Overview
This was my first project as a designer and maybe the most challenging up to date. Small team with a big dream to create unique VR game in a time when virtual reality still reminded "wild west".
I started with the level based on the infiltration of the enemy's base. My personal goal was to build a horror experience that was quite different from the overall "shooter first" vibe of the game, since we already had a lot of encounter-only scenarios. I used lighting and sound to unleash this unique perception of the game through the HMD and played a lot around close-quarter combat instead of ranged encounters.
I was responsible for blockouts, concept art requests and reviews, designing modular kits for these levels, set dressing, lighting art, scripting, boss battles, vfx and sound implementation.
One of the best parts of this game was the need to create and design everything in terms of tools and engine update for the VR needs. I was working with our programmer to create needed nodes for visual scripting which was in heart of our game. At that time we were among the first developers who had access to the Oculus Touch Controllers, so it was a grat opportunity to work on user experience and make hands and interactions in our game exciting and beliavable. Everything from animation setup, object interactions to vibration and sound setup was done in these experiments and it made our game stand out and follow the 4A-Games phylosophy.
I was able to create and support a lot of mechanics specifically for VR that provided amazing level of immersion. And by doing that I learned so much about the engine possibilities and development techniques.
Enemy Base — Part 1
Protagonist has a mission to infiltrate enemy's base and obtain valuable data. This level contains a lot of unique and universal mechanics that were done by me - traps, puzzles, interactions with the world, etc. This level started the whole modular approach for the project and gave a lot of features to the game.
Enemy Base — Part 2
Second part of the level where Protagonist goes back to the base and destroys Villain's plans. This level was supposed to be backtrack of the first part, but thanks to the previously implemented modular approach and tools developed I decided to create a unique layout. I think that most interesting and challenging area was the encounter in the moving elevator. I wanted a dynamic encounter where players will be surrounded and outnumbered and dual-wielding guns.
Boss Encounter
Whole boss fight was done using visual scripting in engine. The design remained pretty simple due to the lack of support, art constrains and whole point-to-point teleportation system for the traversal, but still entertaining. Robot was following players trying to get into melee, was able to grab and throw objects as a ranged option and stun players disabling the teleportation.
Weapons Gameplay Reveal
Part of the pre-release marketing where we present different weapons showing them on my level.
Screenshots
Screenshots of my locations showcasing enemies and environments. I was working on them for post-launch marketing.
Creating the physical copy
On the third anniversary of the project, I’ve decided to create the missing piece – one and only physical copy of this game. I am a huge games collector, and knew that my colleagues would like to have this as a memory on their shelves as well.
Here is the box art that I made to honor this project and everyone who was involved in it during the development.
