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    Hex Rally Racers

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    Details

    Details

    My Role: Lead Level Designer

    About: Hex Rally Racers is a 3D kart racing game where witches ride around on brooms through magical environments and combine different ingredients to make unique spells.

    Software: Unreal Engine 4

    Total Production Time: 4 Months

    Release Date: May 20, 2022

    Platform: PC

    Download: 

    Hex Rally Racers on Steam

    Resposibilties

    Responsibilities

    Lead Level Designer

    • Led a team of 29 designers to create a kart racing game in 4 months

    • Identified the method / pipeline of track construction

    • Had final say on track design decisions

    • Helped manage the product backlog, communicated with stakeholders. and ensured the teams stayed productive, efficient, and valued

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    Team Managment

    At the SMU Guildhall, I was chosen by faculty to lead all 29 designers in our cohort for a kart racing game.

    Some of my contributions included:

    • Splitting the group into designated teams

    • Continually finding productive work​ for the designers

    • Clarifying technical concerns / questions


    This experience allowed me to understand level design from a managerial viewpoint - and work cross-discipline to deliver a fun AND functional product in time for release.

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    Our team of 29 designers after launch

    Track Construction

    As Lead Level Designer, my #1 priority was the construction of the tracks that players would ride around in.

    These responsibilities included:

    • Delivering engaging levels that felt unique from each other

    • Ensuring quality in construction (minimizing bugs)

    • Determining the methods / pipelines of track construction

    • Establishing consistent conveyance techniques

    • Ensuring the standardized aesthetic for the tracks

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    This experience gave me great insight into efficiency as a level designer. I learned firsthand the importance of establishing early pipelines, communication and documentation among peers, and developing a technical prowess in Unreal.

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    Before and After of the track: "Portobello Pond"

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    Meeting Deadlines

    Our team was tasked with the lofty goal of making a racing game completely from scratch - in less than a semester. We decided that we could develop 6 unique tracks, 4 balanced karts, and 10 pickups with vastly different abilities.

    This required me to:

    • Establish strict milestones for "mini deliverables" from the various teams (Whitebox, 1st Playable, Aesthetics Pass, etc)

    • Continually prioritize, evaluate, and adjust goals as necessary for the delivery of the product

    • Have a consistent method of playtests / feedback to iterate on the tracks and pickups as much as possible

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    While this process was far from easy, it affirmed to me the importance of foresight and organization as a level designer. It was an incredibly rewarding experience that has given me the confidence to create fun levels at any pace necessary.

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    Our team calendar, color-coded by department

    Retrospective

    Retrospective

    What Went Well:

    • Shipped the title

    • Unique take on the kart racing genre

    • Adjusted well to uncertainty

    • 6 unique tracks - most in Guildhall history

    • More resources devoted to QA early on

    • The level designer-to-artist pipeline

    • Learning curve of core mechanics was too steep (a tutorial could fix this)

    What Needs Improvement:

    • Importance of modular elements for all levels

    • Understanding of designer responsibilities from a management viewpoint

    • Prioritization of functionality, fun gameplay, and stakeholder expectations - all within context

    What I Learned:

    Gameplay

    Gameplay

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    © 2023 by Gabe Eubanks.

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