Shatter Keep
Shatter Keep is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where 3 survivor players try to escape the castle and 1 randomly-selected monster player attempts to eliminate them. Survivors must complete a list of sequenced objectives to open the castle exits while arming traps, lighting torches and avoiding the turned monster before the timer expires.
Shatter Keep is available on Steam!
My Responsibility
I worked as the Creative Director and Lead Designer, and was responsible for articulating and ensuring coherence in the overall game, it’s concept, features and overall player experience.
Managed product timeline, team tasks and project direction
Iterated and refined on existing game mechanics with playtest feedback
Designed new gameplay mechanics that fit with theming and project scope
Designed several 2D “paper map” layouts
Designed new puzzles using pre-existing mechanics
Refined level through rigorous playtesting and iteration
Bugfixing level related bugs to ensure a polished end product and smooth player experience
Game Design
Monster Abilities
Slash.
The monster attacks survivors with the slash ability. The attack has a reach of 1.5 units directly in front of the monster with a cooldown of 1 second. I made this decision to ensure that survivors could not be double-swiped and downed quickly, and give survivors a fair chance of escape. The attack takes 0.5 seconds, with a post-attack state of 0.5 seconds.
Pounce.
This ability is a quick pounce, propelling the monster 9 units forward in .4 seconds. The animation ends with then a 0.5 delay at the end - preventing monster movement for 0.5 seconds to ensure survivors have a chance to escape or hide. This ability has a cooldown of 20 seconds with the cooldown begining as soon as the ability is completed.
Track.
The monster can track survivors allowing them to follow coloured footsteps of the closest player for 15 seconds. When the ability is used, the survivor nearest to the monster will leave tracks of their movement at the time of use for the duration of the ability. This ability has a cooldown of 45 seconds. The cooldown will begin as soon as the ability is completed.
Survivor Traps
Bear Trap.
This trap locks the monster in place until they press a randomized 6 button sequence. The monster cannot move until the prompts are completed. The bear trap appears opened on the ground when armed, and are often found around tight corners on the map.
Tripwire.
Inverts the monster’s movement controls for 5 seconds. All abilities excluding attack are disabled for the duration of the trap’s effect. Automatically activated when the monster walks through it. Tripwires are commonly found near doorways or in hallways.
Sound Box.
This trap is designed as a “lure”. The sound trap plays an objective completion sound effects in a room that simulates the sound of an objective being completed by survivors. Once activated, there is a 10 second delay and then the sound plays. The monster often follows sounds around the map, and this trap and lead them away from where other survivors are.
Level Design
It was important to replicate designs of the map based on real-world castles from the same era for cohesion of level design and gameplay flow. Initial designs took inspiration from some castle layouts, and iteration cycles brought the design closer to real-world blueprints of palaces which were then modified to suit the game’s MDA framework.
The level is a crucial element to the survival of the players and the hunt of the monster, so I wanted rooms to naturally connect without several long streches of hallway. Each room has been designed to ensure at least 2 doorways into each room to allow other survivors to maneuver without a chokepoint that can be exploited by the monster. This design also allows for better overall player flow throughout the level as survivors complete various objectives/monster tracks the players. Objective placement, while randomized, was designed to ensure that survivors will be constantly running around the map and not static in a particular room or section of the castle for too long.
Traps.
Traps are located around the map and begin unarmed and are set in place and cannot be moved. Survivors must approach traps and arm them. Each survivor can have up to 2 traps armed at once, for a total of 6 active traps. Each trap hinders the ability of the monster for a short period of time. Survivors are actively encouraged to arm traps, as they are placed in strategic chokepoints near doors, objectives and torches.
Spawns.
Players are randomly individually spawned at one of the 6 designated spawn points around the map at the beginning of the game. Each spawn will be calculated to ensure that the monster will spawn at the spawn point furthest away from the 3 survivors spawns to allow survivors a “grace period” with distance. These spawn locations were chosen as main sections of the map as well as rooms that lead into several directions, allowing for more than a single initial movement point from spawn.
Eliminations.
I designed elimations to have a 2-step process for both the monster and the survivors. Once a survivor is downed by the monster, a soul is dropped by the survivor which is automatically picked up by the monster. As the monster, you must deliever the soul to one of the 3 soul cages located around the map. The monster must deliver the soul to the cage to confirm the elimination. Once a survivor is knocked down their teammates are able to revive them. The elimination becomes a race between the monster depositing the soul or the survivors reviving their teammate.
Player Focus
Monster.
The monster has to alternate between chasing the players and avoiding traps. To reinforce the pillar of balanced asynchronous play, the monster cannot simply chase the players for the entire round punishment free. If the monster is struck by a trap: they face a time penalty. If they want to avoid the trap by taking an alternate route, they risk losing the player.
Survivors.
Suvivor objectives alternate between low-stress (completing objectives) and high-anxiety scenarios (being chased by the monster) to maintain the player’s attention and keep them in a flow state for longer. The map allows the survivors to evade the monsters by always having multiple exits to each room. Once the player breaks line of sight with the monster, there are a number of different directions the survivor can go.
