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Hex Rally Racers

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Trailer

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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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