rubysharkgooo

COMPANY INTRODUCTION

In June 2020, 9 rookie level designers and a single novice tech boy set out on a quest to ascend their portfolios; unified under the dream of making their way into the industry. 2 years later, their once humble idea has now branched into a fully fledged game with 12 members now in full-time industry positions and aiding 20 new designers, artists and techies all sharing the same goal as the 10 founders. Rubyshark now flies under the sole identity of helping students and hobbyists get their foot in the door by working under industry standards with talented practitioners in lead roles who are dedicated to helping those in their team create amazing portfolio pieces. We’re always interested in individuals who are comfortable stepping into a mentor role and expand our tight team of talented leads and managers. The game will be released for free with open development tools being made public sometime after as this is voluntary portfolio project. The Demo for our first game is set to release on December 1st!

PROJECT DETAILS

    • Volunteer Position: August 2024 – Present
    • Total Team of 80 People
    • Level Design Team of 10 People
    • Level Designer
    • Unreal Engine 5
    • https://www.rubysharkgames.com/

Mantra is a sci-fi FPS inspired by the likes of Doom, TitanFall and Halo taking you through an expansive world where robots have gone corrupt and are seeking to take over the planet. Throughout Mantra, you’ll encounter a healthy mix of action-packed combat, swift traversal spaces and puzzles you’ll have to complete in order to progress.

Key Features

  • Wall run through both dense and open environments to maneuver around your enemies and keep the advantage. Master your movement abilities and keep your foes on their toes.
  • Use a wide array of weapons to break down every bot who stands in your way. Will you master the iconic double-barrel shotgun or will you stick to the trusty mangnum handgun?
  • Tenso Corp. manufactured multiple bot types that each have their own strengths and weaknesses. From fighting a swarm of Drones to dodging the deadly charger, studying your enemies will help you survive as you journey to the top of the Tenso Corp. factory.

Main Facility Hub 2D Layout

Starting off with The Facility in Mantra, I had to do a 2D layout of what I wanted to do with the main center area for the Facility. I had to bring in references and unique areas that would fit the narrative and theme of the Facility for Mantra.

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Shape Composition Feedback

I had a lot of problems with the main question of “What is this?” when it came to my shape composition and creation for certain elements in an environment. With this feedback, I improvised insanely quickly and got right to work in creating amazing environmental stories. I wrote down in-game text to show the details of an environmental disaster within the game. I also looked up reference images and pictures of generators in real life and made a similar blockout for 3D artist to use as reference with my blockouts to make a cool and unique shaped generator for the Facility.

CLICK FOR A FULL SCREEN IMAGE
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Rapid Grayboxing

With feedback from the Level Design Team and Environment Artists, I was going into problems for shape composition and what the objects actually were when I was grayboxing them. I had a lot of problems with the main question of “What is this?” when it came to my shape composition and creation for certain elements in an environment. With this feedback, I improvised insanely quickly and got right to work in creating amazing environmental stories.

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RESPONSIBILITIES

  • In charge of doing high quality blockouts & prototypes.
  • Designing new events and encounters for Mantra.
  • Visual Scripting, Blueprints, encounters, puzzles to be setup in Mantra.
  • Redesigning & blocking out puzzles, objective areas & new combat spaces for the entire Mining Facility in Ascension in Mantra.
  • Going through past levels made 4 years ago by Level Designers and redesigning them and doing a complete rework.
  • 2D Top-down prototyping and planning for my blockouts.
  • Level Design Documentation on the levels I’m building and blocking out for Mantra.
  • Review & update the game’s navigational pathing for the A.I. to correctly use.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • This is the largest studio that I’ve been apart of with a total of 95 people!!!
  • I got full freedom and creativity to design high quality and fun blockouts inside Unreal Engine 5.
  • I get to work with a really good industry friend of mine, Nathan Kellman who is mentoring the Level Design team.