CtrlShift
Capstone Project, University of California Santa Cruz
CtrlShift is an asymmetric local co-op game, where one player assumes the role of the hacker and uses the PC, while the other player takes on the role of Agent, wearing the VR headset. The game is made for the HTC Vive, and room scale game play, using Unreal Engine 4.
Communication is key in the game, as each player has a different view and experience of the game. We wanted to create an experience with VR that was not solitary, as well as making use of the PC needed to run a VR game. But most of all, we wanted a tactical, fun "1980's vision of the future" co-op, where each role would be just as important as the other, no matter how different they were.
We developed the game over the course of eight months, including a pre-production phase, to publication on itch.io, and we learned a lot during that time. My roles on this project were Producer, Development Director, and Level Designer.
Some of the tasks I did:
- Social media outreach
- Planning and following up on external team meetings
- Daily Scrum meetings
- Scheduling, updating Jira, following up on concluded sprints and milestones
- Level design, from documents, to concepts, to building them in UE4, testing and iterating
- Promotional material, submissions to events and showcases, demoing, presentations, etc.
- Note taking on game tests and showcases, as well as part taking in tests
The game was developed in tight collaboration with an external student art team from SJSU, consisting of Rodney Balajadia, Garrett Gerberding, Yuki Wong and Mark Garma, as well as an external student audio team from Academy of Arts, consisting of Brendan Wolf and Daniel Helling. The USCS core development team consisted of myself, Dylan Faust, Ashkan Nourkhalaj, Lingyi Qu and Zejun Yuan.
If you would like to visit the CtrlShift website, please go to: http://www.ctrlshiftgame.com
If you would like to play the demo, it is available at: https://the-hive.itch.io/ctrlshift-demo
Award:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/23/intel-university-names-the-top-college-game-projects-at-gdc-2018/
Mentions:
https://video.arstechnica.com/watch/all-things-gaming-ars-technica-s-editors-picks-for-the-best-of-e3
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/e3-2017s-brightest-indie-games-cataloged-in-words-and-video/
https://www.mediaindieexchange.com/games/ctrlshift/
http://n4g.com/news/2075294/indie-game-ctrlshift-brings-asymmetrical-multiplayer-vr-to-the-table-concealed-gaming
