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HardDriverz is an Arcade Racer with customizable kart pieces across 6 different tracks. I balanced multiple systems within the game, such as the modular kart pieces, pickups, and drifting. I set out with the goal to make each custom kart to be the best in specific scenarios me and other level designers set up.
Team Size: 54 Developers
Software: Unreal Engine 5.5
Development Time: 240 Hours / ~4 Months
Focus: Systems Design, Balancing
Systems Design & Balancing
My Roles and Responsibilities
Created and balance 4 categories of kart modifications, with 3 pieces in each category
Collaborated with Programmers, Artists, Producers, and Game Designer to create base balancing for all the systems and drift
Worked with a team of fellow Level Designers to ideate and prototype pickup ideas. Worked with Programmers to implement refined pickup ideas
Design Goals
Balance 12+ Sets of Mod Kit Pieces
A drift that is easy to use but hard to master
Create Mod Kit pieces that are “best in context”
Designing the Modular Kit Piece System
Designing the Pickups
Early in development, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of the modular pieces as they were iterated
I decided that each item would have a heavy/medium/light option - Heavy would be 100 and light would be 25 as a base
Each category would either increase or decrease an attribute - As handling went up, acceleration would go up, and as acceleration went up it would cause weight to go down
Then I took it from spreadsheet to Unreal Engine to start testing and iterating
I also created a leaderboard with the modkit pieces used to incentivize and encourage the team to playtest and beat each other’s scores
Vision Block
A temporary vision block that players can block with the Shield pickup
I wanted to create multiple debuff pickups, but to ensure the player wasn’t constantly debuffed, I make the drop rate for debuff pickups lower than the rest of the pickups
For the logistical side, Vision Block only affects player’s in front of you - as seen as the blueprint runs your rank versus the other players to see which is higher
I also made the duration of the effect and how long the player has to potentially block the effect variables since these numbers will be changed based off of feedback and playtesting
Presented the first pass at balancing during the Vertical Slice milestone
We tested our first pass at balancing by testing the min and max limits of each mod kit together
Post-Mortem
What went well?
Early Focus on Balancing
Started working on balancing very early in the project
Found pickup references and stayed true to those pillars throughout development
Found the Fun
Once drifting was implemented, we found the fun and the morale and enjoyment of the team greatly increased
Interdisciplinary Blockers
Being blocked for majority of important sprints with little communication led to less time in engine to test
Decision-Making
Decisions about the core pillars of our game weren’t set for a long time, so it didn’t allow time for the systems to be created and iterated in the time they needed
What needs improvement?
What did I learn?
Communication with Leads and Producers
Leads were receptive to communication and concerns from the team and it was very easy to communicate and receive feedback from them.
Oil Spill
A temporary speed reducer, Oil Spill follows the trajectory of the player using it and leaves a trail of red oil - causing the target to spin out
Oil Spill came from a prototype I made that got polished and iterated to what finally became Oil Spill
Tractor Beam
A catch-up mechanic where you target a player in front of you, latch onto them, and get a boost to get ahead of them
Tractor Beam was a collaboration with the systems programmers as this pickup went through a lot of iteration to get right
Tractor Beam has three phases, the locking on, movement, and the boost phase. In the locking on phase.
In the movement phase, the player is locked to a single player in front of them and is brought up to be right beside them
And in the boost phase, the player is given a temporary speed boost where they can breeze past the locked player
Logically, this pickup had to the most iteration and time spent to ensure all phases were working in tandem and smoothly
