Game Designer - Led Overall Game Vision & Decisions

Team Size: 26 developers

Software: UE5

Platform: PC | Steam Deck

Kila: Hourbound is a third-person, action-adventure platformer game for PC and Steam Deck.

Take on the role of Kila, a Keeper of Time, and embark on missions to return Aion to its original glory. Each mission transports you to a frozen hour, taking you through the sweltering sun and shine of day to the starry skies and whimsy of night. Rewind and manipulate time, fight off the savages, and dash and jump across floating islands. While exploration and magical ruins call, you must be quick as the time to complete your missions is limited and rogue bosses need to be taken down.

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Kila: Hourbound

Design Goals

Create Engaging,
Varied Melee Combat

Ideate on enemy types and ways to use level design to create distinct combat encounters that gradually increase in difficulty.

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Create player opportunities to use unique mechanic with different purposes.

Prioritize Player Experience

Refine affordances, controls, and mechanics to support player understanding and playstyles.

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Design Implementation

Engaging, Varied Melee Combat

With player action being a limited set of melee actions, we wanted to ensure the challenges still felt exciting and kept the player engaged throughout the game.

I ideated 3 different types of enemies to require the player master different strategies - standard melee, elite, ranged
Communicated with designers on different ways they could combine enemy types, verticality, and layout to vary combat
I worked alongside programmers and created systems to refine AI and player abilities - behavior loops, speed, & metrics
I collaborated with the balancing team to distinguish player stats early on and how we wanted these to increase over time

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Our team wanted to highlight our game's unique mechanic of rewinding time so it could be used to the fullest potential.

I led brainstorms with designers on different ways to incorporate it into gameplay - puzzles, flow blockers, boss stages
Worked with leads to select what chrono abilities (rewind and action-based skills) the player could equip for help in combat and navigation

Prioritizing Player Experience

I wanted to ensure there was player focus when considering mechanics and systems

Formulated conveyance language, utilizing colors, icons, and vfx
Leads and I designed different ways for the player to have autonomy in how they play and fight with both defensive and offensive opportunities, as well as different skills for mastery

Postmortem

What Went Well

Refining enemy tiers and behavior throughout production
Defining clear expectations for essential asset necessities and player behavior
Working with animation, vfx, sound, and UI designers to create juice and satisfactory combat

What Needs Improvement

Boss stages could use additional refinement to ensure proper difficulty levels
Upgrade and chrono ability system could use more bug-fixes and polish
With more time, I would have liked more opportunities for the player to engage with the story that shaped the worldspace

What I Learned

Identifying critical style goals with team leads while iterating on art style
Employing color language and layered conveyance techniques for clear level affordances
Quick decision-making with scale and scope and problem-solving as needed

PEYTON WALKER

Level Designer

Kila: Hourbound

Design Goals

Create Engaging,
Varied Melee Combat

Ideate on enemy types and ways to use level design to create distinct combat encounters that gradually increase in difficulty.

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Create player opportunities to use unique mechanic with different purposes.

Prioritize Player Experience

Refine affordances, controls, and mechanics to support player understanding and playstyles.

Design Implementation

Engaging, Varied Melee Combat

With player action being a limited set of melee actions, we wanted to ensure the challenges still felt exciting and kept the player engaged throughout the game.

I ideated 3 different types of enemies to require the player master different strategies - standard melee, elite, ranged

Communicated with designers on different ways they could combine enemy types, verticality, and layout to vary combat

I worked alongside programmers and created systems to refine AI and player abilities - behavior loops, speed, & metrics

I collaborated with the balancing team to distinguish player stats early on and how we wanted these to increase over time

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Our team wanted to highlight our game's unique mechanic of rewinding time so it could be used to the fullest potential.

I led brainstorms with designers on different ways to incorporate it into gameplay - puzzles, flow blockers, boss stages

Worked with leads to select what chrono abilities (rewind and action-based skills) the player could equip for help in combat and navigation

Prioritizing Player Experience

I wanted to ensure there was player focus when considering mechanics and systems

Formulated conveyance language, utilizing colors, icons, and vfx

Leads and I designed different ways for the player to have autonomy in how they play and fight with both defensive and offensive opportunities, as well as different skills for mastery

Postmortem

What Went Well

What Needs Improvement

What I Learned

PEYTON WALKER

Level Designer

Kila: Hourbound

Design Goals

Create Engaging, Varied Melee Combat

Ideate on enemy types and ways to use level design to create distinct combat encounters that gradually increase in difficulty.

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Create player opportunities to use unique mechanic with different purposes.

Prioritize Player Experience

Refine affordances, controls, and mechanics to support player understanding and playstyles.

Design Implementation

Engaging, Varied Melee Combat

With player action being a limited set of melee actions, we wanted to ensure the challenges still felt exciting and kept the player engaged throughout the game.

I ideated 3 different types of enemies to require the player master different strategies - standard melee, elite, ranged

Communicated with designers on different ways they could combine enemy types, verticality, and layout to vary combat

I worked alongside programmers and created systems to refine AI and player abilities - behavior loops, speed, & metrics

I collaborated with the balancing team to distinguish player stats early on and how we wanted these to increase over time

Emphasize Time-Manipulation

Our team wanted to highlight our game's unique mechanic of rewinding time so it could be used to the fullest potential.

I led brainstorms with designers on different ways to incorporate it into gameplay - puzzles, flow blockers, boss stages

Worked with leads to select what chrono abilities (rewind and action-based skills) the player could equip for help in combat and navigation

Prioritizing Player Experience

I wanted to ensure there was player focus when considering mechanics and systems

Formulated conveyance language, utilizing colors, icons, and vfx

Leads and I designed different ways for the player to have autonomy in how they play and fight with both defensive and offensive opportunities, as well as different skills for mastery

Postmortem

What Went Well

What Needs Improvement

What I Learned

Create Engaging,
Varied Melee Combat