This mission takes place in the TIDIS Corporate HQ in the Silicon Valley district. I worked with level artists Jonathan Wiley and Sarah Cole-Megaro to design all interior and exterior spaces, starting from the initial whitebox geometry of the building campus and then worked inwards, covering mission interiors as we developed the pitch for the mission.
The mission has 3 major beats; the starting and end sections of this mission have the player taking control of 2 (two) exotic robots (Wrench Junior and The Spider Drone) that are exclusive to this mission. I worked with game designer Michael Surya and gameplay programmer Sergio Juarez to pitch and iterate on the design for both of these robots.
Exotic Beats: Wrench Junior, A VR Puzzle, and The Spider Drone#
The player is remotely controlling the Wrench Junior robot in the first of three beats in the mission. The challenge is to move Wrench Junior through an automated repair facility by hacking its cameras and re-routing its conveyor belt system. Wrench Junior is then used to detonate an EMP that brings down the security and forces an evacuation at TIDIS HQ so that Marcus can sneak in on foot.
In the middle section of the mission, the Player is back to controlling Marcus. After downloading a trove of top secret files, Marcus wants to push deeper underground at TIDIS. To do this, Players have to crack a mind-bending VR Puzzle that’s baked into the building’s geometry. I had so much fun designing this puzzle and consider it some of my best work!
Having solved the VR Puzzle, Marcus enters the hangar of the Spider Drone. Time to hijack it to start the third and final act of the mission!
We really wanted players to have fun in this final beat so much of the gameplay here focuses on climbing on the walls and ceilings, blasting and / or stomping anything in the Spider Drone’s path. We tweaked the NPC damage profiles here so they do very little damage!
The player is remotely controlling the Wrench Junior robot in the first of three beats in the mission. The challenge is to move Wrench Junior through an automated repair facility by hacking its cameras and re-routing its conveyor belt system. Wrench Junior is then used to detonate an EMP that brings down the security and forces an evacuation at TIDIS HQ so that Marcus can sneak in on foot.
In the middle section of the mission, the Player is back to controlling Marcus. After downloading a trove of top secret files, Marcus wants to push deeper underground at TIDIS. To do this, Players have to crack a mind-bending VR Puzzle that’s baked into the building’s geometry. I had so much fun designing this puzzle and consider it some of my best work!
Having solved the VR Puzzle, Marcus enters the hangar of the Spider Drone. Time to hijack it to start the third and final act of the mission!
We really wanted players to have fun in this final beat so much of the gameplay here focuses on climbing on the walls and ceilings, blasting and / or stomping anything in the Spider Drone’s path. We tweaked the NPC damage profiles here so they do very little damage!