RIDERS REPUBLIC
This was my first experience in a AAA production. I started as a Level designer, but I was more and more involved in technical matters, and eventually became Technical Level designer on the project.
PITCH
Riders Republic is an extreme sports multiplayer game, developed and published by Ubisoft. The main developing studio is Ubisoft Annecy.
The players evolve in a massive open world, based on US national parks, and can play a variety of sports, such as bike, snowboard and wingsuit.
They can play career events, or participate in multiplayer modes, such as Mass Races (64 player races) or Tricks Battle (6v6 tricks event).
MY WORK - TECHNICAL DESIGN
My focus aimed towards scripting flows & systems and working on procedural tools.
SCRIPTING
- Creation, iteration and debugging of different game flows. This includes the careers progression and the reward system.
- Building of the Onboarding of the game. The onboarding has a specific flow, as it guides the player through the game, unlocking events and features one by one and showing various tutorials. Specific logics had to be put in place for the occasion, and many iterations were done on it, so it was one of my biggest topics.
- Building of game events and new features with specific needs, from the prototyping phase to the intergration in the game, including debug and iterations.
- Creation and maintaining of quest templates and scripts, to be used by level designers and mission integrators.
- Work with programmers to build new tools and logics for visual scripting. Collaborating with programmers was a big part of my work, back and forth was constent so they could provide us with all the bricks we needed.
PROCEDURAL
- Discussions with Leads, Level designers and Level artists regarding the production needs in terms of tools. These discussions would allow to gather the needs, and then design the tools, assessing the feasibility of its different features.
- Work with Tech artists and Programmers on the development and iteration of the procedural tools. These tools were used to create gameplay elements (kickers, walkways, road network, etc.), and dressing elements (props instantiation). The focus was to have powerful and easy-to-use tools (UI/UX), that allow for quick iterations.
Usually from the R&D stage to the delivery for the team, and then debug and iteration depending on the team's feedback.
- Integration of procedural elements of the world. I focused on integrating the road network, creating road profiles governed by a set of rules (different profiles for asphalt roads, downhill bike trails, pedestrian trails, etc.), then using these profiles for the generation of the roads.
DOCUMENTATION
- Writing of Technical Design documents for new features, addressing the feasibility and risks linked to them.
- Writing and maintenance of technical documentation (Tutorials, tools descriptions, scripting elements, etc.).
MY WORK - LEVEL DESIGN
I first worked as a Level designer on the project. My focus was to create layouts for career events:
LAYOUTS CREATION
- Creation of the events' tracks using procedural tools.
- Prototyping of the layouts with basic shapes.
- Discussions and iterations with Level artists to dress the layouts and give them some flavor.
DOCUMENTATION
- Writing of level design documents, describing my intentions for the layouts I was responsible for.
- Writing of World design documents, defining the content are navigation means of a world region.
STUDIOS
Ubisoft Annecy
Ubisoft Belgrade
Ubisoft Berlin
Ubisoft Kyiv
Ubisoft Pune
Ubisoft Montpelier
Ubisoft Odesa
