What is Understaffed at the Interstellar?

Understaffed at the Interstellar is a VR cocktail-bar game. The game puts players into the shoes of a bartender working busy hours at an interstellar night-club; where in which they must swiftly prepare drinks for impatient alien customers.

The game, along with its various different drink combinations and types, also features a ‘tricks’ system; where in which the player, by throwing and catching their equipment, can increase the patience of their alien customers.

Role

PROGRAMMER, ARTIST & LEAD DESIGNER

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Skills Used

Overall, I was responsible for environmental and immersion design for this project. This involved juggling the task of designing the bar environment to be visually appealing, functional and immersive all at once.

I also designed the core gameplay loop, visual style and assets for the game; whilst also being responsible for iterating upon them following feedback from playtesters.

Throughout the development of this project, I took on an assistant programmer role. This involved tasks such as the programming of different mechanics and the physics to support them; along with handling bugs and other errors discovered in playtesting.

During the final stages of development, I was responsible for the generation of a large number of the assets within the final game. In particular, I was responsible for creating the entire environment, most of the interactables and the customer models and animations. Additionally, I also created a large number of the sound effects and worked with our lead programmer to implement them effectively.

Grading

High Distinction 90%

Main Contributions Over Development

Prototype Environment

Prior to programming out the main mechanics of the game, I was responsible for grey-boxing out the main environment. In particular, I had to ensure it appeared properly scaled, and all main interactables were within close proximity. I was also responsible for designing the interactions the player would have with the environment, ensuring each felt immersive and unique.

Beta Testing

Following the environment and interaction design, my team and I began setting out the basic mechanics in a test environment. During this, I was responsible for the creation of the fluid simulations, the bottle & glass physics, the ice machine functionality and the garnishes. Throughout this phase of development, we held weekly playtesting sessions and iterated on many areas of the design as a result. It was often my responsibility to lead these design iterations.

Release-Ready Version

Following the mechanic development, and after we believed the game was tuned to a satisfying loop, we began polishing out the assets, visual style and sound design. During this phase, I took charge of the visual aspects of development; more specifically, the creation of final 3D models and animations, as well as the post processing effects.

Screenshots & Grabs

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