Classic, licensed hack-n-slash
That we ported to Apple Arcade, a platform which you can play on any Apple device and OS with cross-save. These include iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and tvOS.
Originally developed by Soleil.
Camera and control re-design
Game needed to be played with both touch controls and gamepad. For touch controls, we implemented a camera system that mimics those found in the early 3rd person 3d games like Ocarina of Time, in which the camera rotates following the user movement.
This liberated the left hand to use the rest of actions (“buttons”) most of the time, including an to perform Target Lock, including a behavior to reset the camera if no target was available at the time. Additionally, players could use a camera on-screen joystick in case they wanted to tune their exact angle on camera.
Camera and control re-design
Some in-game areas needed specific new default camera angles as they were uncomfortable to navigate, so we created those and implemented them in the areas that required so.
To offer maximum comfort, we also added a screen in which players could customize their button positions to ther liking.
Finally, we ensured that every controller listed in the Apple devices could be used with the game at any given time, including SteelSeries Nimbus and Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.
Balancing and difficulty modes
The game was originally conceived for a more hardcore audience, and had to be adapted to the new audience and the finnicky touch controls.
For that reason, we created a new “Easy” mode from scratch, the Jack mode, which led players focus on the story and not so much on their combat skills.
We also applied a general rebalancing on every difficulty mode and re-structure some of the encounter design on certain levels that could be a difficulty spike.
Additional responsibilities
I re-design the UX for mobile screens in all in-game menus and adapted all tutorials to the new features we added, including text writing.
I designed extra content design for future DLCs that were released after I left the project (Boss Rush mode, 1-hit mode, photo mode…)
I took over some production tasks (localization management, comms between client, QA and devs, task management) and helped out QA when needed.
