Hold Down The Shop
Role: Level Designer | Team Size: 8 | Engine: Unreal | Jan 2020 - April 2020
Overview
Hold Down The Shop is a 2 player co-op experience where the players control either the apothecary or the apprentice. The apothecary is in the field communicating with customers and gathering ingredients. The apprentice is holding down the shop and taking orders from the apothecary. Together they must communicate and platform around to create potions for customers.
This game was created as part of the Ubisoft Game Labs Competition
The theme was: Apart//Together
The constraints were: Online Multiplayer & Accessible Gameplay
This game required the use of a dedicated server requiring timed activation, thus we are unable to publish a prototype.
Please enjoy the demo video below
Gameplay
Exterior Space
The exterior space of this level was designed for the apothecary's side of gameplay. Since their main task was to collect the orders from the customers and then deliver the potions, I placed the houses in close proximity to one another as for easy access to any one door. The well in the middle also acted as the main centerpiece as players would consistently come back to this location to either deliver natural ingredients to the apprentice or to pick up the finalized potion for the customers. When it came to the jumps the apothecary would need to complete to get the natural ingredients, I kept them fairly easy and straightforward. This was to keep the focus for this player on mainly describing the other ingredients to their partner.
Interior Space
The interior space of this level was designed for the apprentice's gameplay. Since their overall tasks were: listen to apothecary, collect ingredient, bring it to cauldron. I was able to make the overall space a little bigger and include more challenging jumps in order to even out their active playtime with the apothecary. Lighting and directing the player was extremely important here as the had to be quick and decisive on their choice of ingredients. I utilized physical signs as well as brighter lighting in spaces to guide the player along the correct paths. By having the cauldron and portal in the same space, this also helped the apprentice easily deliver the completed potions to the apothecary who was waiting on the other side.
