OUTER PLATES

Overview

Outerplates is a 1- 4 Player Couch Co-Op Action Game where competing teams of astronauts have been sent to colonize recently discovered planets.

To do so, the teams must compete to appease the native apex predator by cooking their favorite meals before they can finally plant their flag.

Cook your way to the beast’s heart and expand your galactic empire.

SCAD Entelechy 2024 Awards: Best Level Design, Best 3D Game Large Team, Best Game Environment, Best in Show

Project Details

Developed over 20 weeks
Team of 17
Unreal Engine 5
Perforce
Game Design
Level Design
Scripting

Contributions

I was the Design Lead for this project and was responsible for scripting the initial prototype, overseeing the design team, planning with other team leads, and creating documentation for other team members to reference. I implemented most of the assets in-engine featured in the levels as well as planning, greyboxing, and helping set dress all levels within the game. I also assisted with scripting combat and interactable mechanics.

Gameplay

Game Trailer

Pre-Production

Proof of Concept

Team Selection

Group Hug

Running Around

Playing Tag

Proof of Concept

Before we even began our Capstone we had to prepare three pitches for a potential game. Team members volunteered to help work on for these pitches, I chose to script a proof of concept for a multiplayer and camera system for our pitch “Food Fight” (this was the pitch that evolved into Outerplates).

My main intention was to prove that our team was able to have a working local-multiplayer system that could be built upon.

Early Level Blockouts

Initial Massout

Playable Greybox

Game Design

Documentation

GDD

Throughout the entire project the design team kept our documentation in two ways:

A Game Design Document that was constantly updated throughout the entire project.
Spreadsheets to track the variables for our Recipes and their Ingredients

Gameplay Pillars

Team-Based Competition
We wanted players to have a collaborative and competitive experience by pitting two teams in a race to see who could cook their recipe the fastest.
Mechanics designed so that players had the opportunity to sabotage the other team through a variety of different methods.
Approachable
Being easy to pick up and learn is a must-have for a party game.
This was accomplished through the simplification of game mechanics and controls to make them easy to understand memorize.
Various UI and HUD elements were also incorporated to help guide players and convey information.
Replayable
When it comes to replayability, the core game loop and the time it takes to complete it are everything.
We were able to achieve this by keeping the loop short and simple.

Gameplay Loop

The typical round goes like this:

Players spawn in their selected teams at their respective finishing stations.
Players are given a recipe to complete that requires them to take specific ingredients that spawn to stations in the level in order to prepare their given recipe.
Players gather and prepare ingredients at stations and receive a usable buff.
Upon last prepared ingredient delivered to finisher, the finished dish is then created and players must take it to the Apex Predator in order to win the round.
Repeat until best of 2 out of 3.

While players are completing their objectives,they can also steal ingredients from other teams to slow them down, can shoot opponents with a rechargable gun to stun them for a short period of time, and must also avoid hazards that occur within the level that can hamper a team’s progress.

Ingredient Spreadsheet

Tangy Tides

Sketch

This was a Tropical Coast split into two sections, the Seafood Beach and the Spicy Ridges. The middle of the level is bisected by a series of waterfalls and a river that when walked through will slow the player down. The design follows a form of asymetrical symmetry so that both the levels halves are unique but provide no advantage over each other gameplay wise. Within the level the players must avoid occasional “Meateor” Showers and can also shoot weak Rocky Pillars that can be used to temporarily block a path.

Blockout

Final

Freeze Dried

This level takes place atop a Ruined Mountain Temple that is partially swallowed up by both sand dunes and snow drifts. Unlike Tangy Tides, there was no clear separation between the two themes of the ingredients, but rather there were separate pockets for them as well as some areas where they were combined. Just like the previous level, both sides may look a bit different, but its layout and placement of ingredients and stations guarantee an equal playing field. The environmental hazards players must face in this level are Ghost Hands that pop up in certain spots and can steal a held ingredient and players can also step on Pressure Plates that will raise/lower alternating sets of Walls in order to block off certain paths.