The Expanse: A Telltale Series

Contributions:

  • Designed, prototyped, and implemented puzzles and gameplay moments

  • Designed and implemented timing and logic for quick time events

  • Designed and implemented logic for waypoints and objectives

  • Designed and implemented freeroam player interactions

  • Collaborated with narrative team to build scene structures and flow

  • Designed and implemented trophies and achievements

Waypoints and Objectives:

     I was the feature owner of the waypoints and objectives for this game. Because of the zero-gravity movement, we found that some players would get lost easily. We decided to add waypoints to the objective system to help alleviate this. These waypoints were set up with a web of hand-placed nodes throughout the level. These nodes would be able to connect to objectives to guide the player to the quickest route. I set up and maintained all of these nodes throughout the game as well as the logic and timing for all the objectives they were connected to.

Puzzles and Gameplay Moments:

     One of the many puzzles and gameplay moments I designed was the episode 4 password puzzle. I prototyped this puzzle in editor using Unreal Blueprints and worked with the programming team to build the shippable version. In this scene the player must move a minecart and unlock a door in order to gain access to the mines. This puzzle starts with the player needing to correctly connect the junction boxes to set up power in the mausoleum. After this they can pull the lever to move the minecart. They are then presented with a password screen that they need to unlock to open the door. The password is a pattern that they need to draw by connecting dots. When looking in the environment for this password pattern, the player will be able to notice the junction boxes that they had recently connected. Similar to the password screen, these boxes are in a grid pattern and the shape the connections the player made is the pattern needed to unlock it.

Quick Time Events:

     In The Expanse, the Lead Designer and I designed quick time events so that specific attacks and movements were always the same buttons. We wanted to make it more of an intuitive reaction rather than a panic guessing game of what button would appear next. The Design Lead and I worked very closely with the Cinematic Team to make sure the sequences were set up in a way that each button press gave immediate feedback. The quick time events were set up using Unreal Blueprints where we could edit the input needed, the timing, and the success and fail states. We decided to use in-editor nodes for the UI placement so that we could fine tune the placement on screen. Each quick time event was a bespoke hand-crafted moment.