Oil and Cordite

Team

Junior Workshop

Year

2020

Organization

Drexel University

Oil and Cordite is an arcade flight game where you use your ships momentum to smash through enemies.

I was the lead designer on the project. I was responsible for designing all but one of the levels, as well as helping with art direction and some scripting.

In the gallery below I will walk you through the design process for three of our levels.

For more information about the game, check out

our itch.io page

Oil and Cordite Trailer

Oil and Cordite

This was my first block out of the set pieces for level 4, done in Maya.

Oil and Cordite

This is the first playable version of our fourth level. Players need to destroy a number of relay towers to lower the shield and progress.

Oil and Cordite

This is the final version of level 4. I lasers as visual indicators for the relays, and sequenced all the objectives to add more direction and a high speed drop to the finish line.

Level 2, Layout

This was my concept for level 2. Players loop the area in a radial pattern with 3 tracks: inner, outer and upper.

Level 2, Greybox

This was my first playable greybox of the level. With the way our movement system worked I realized there needed to be a way to rebound off the ground if you lost momentum and crashed. This ended up significantly changing the design of later levels.

Level 2, Final Models

After playtesting feedback and an artist pass, this was a blockout of the level.

Level 2, Final

Here's a final version of the level, the cloud sea below acts as a boost to get fallen players airborne again.

Level 5, Paper Concept

This was my first concept for the finale. The level changed significantly over time, but the goal stayed the same. I wanted players to progress through staged challenges and employ skills from all of the previous levels.

Level 5, First Playable Version

I tried to design a maze for the player to navigate and complete four objectives, but it didn't stand up to playtesting. This ended up not working well with our movement system and the walls were easily jumped or were so outrageously tall that they became disorienting. This wall jumping problem gave me an idea for a cool shortcut later on though, so it wasn't totally lost to revision.

Level 5, Final

This is the final version of level 5, and my favorite level in the game. Players progress through 4 stages populated by different enemy types. In the final stage they must confront a giant laser that shoots intermittently over a wide area. I also built a skip in to the first stage if players are bold enough to try and scale the wall.

Oil and Cordite

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