NERF Ultimate Championship
Released 2022
Shipped multiple updates post-launch
Studio: Secret Location Inc
Platforms: Meta Quest 2
My Role: Lead Game Designer & Lead Level Designer
Engine: Unity
Summary of Contributions
I was the Lead Game Designer for Nerf Ultimate Championship. As such, I worked on the game from early concept through to final release (2022). This work included writing GDDs, contributing to funding applications, gameplay systems design, locomotion systems design, level design, weapon mechanics, matchmaking systems design, UI & UX, progression systems, monetization systems, and tutorial design.
Locomotion
The goal of Nerf Ultimate Championship is to create a Nerf battle that wouldn’t be possible anywhere but VR. A key aspect to this design goal was a fast and fluid locomotion system, allowing players to jump, double jump, wall run, and mantel. This locomotion system gives players great mobility with a high degree of mastery, allowing them to seamlessly navigate our arenas while engaged high intensity Nerf battles.
To achieve this, I planned and designed a robust locomotion character controller in collaboration with the lead engineer on the project. We built a tool that would allow myself and others on the project to fine tune every aspect of the players movement, in real time and over the network so we could dial in the exact feel for the movement we wanted to achieve.
Each aspect, from running / walking / crouching to jumping, mantling, and wall running were all highly configurable.
Bringing Nerf Blasters to VR
The Blasters were also a key aspect of the game. We had to strike a perfect balance between fun VR gameplay and a honest representation of how Nerf Blasters feel in real life. We knew right away the Blasters had to “feel” like Nerf Blasters, we could not take any short cuts here. I designed a system to allow us to configure each Blasters dart flight characteristics so we could fine tune each individual Blaster in the game.
For every Nerf Blaster, we build a robust configuration tool, driven by an underlying data set, so we could quickly and easily build unique configurations for each Blaster. We were able to adjust the drag force, drop force, and spread force for each dart fired from the Blaster. This allowed us to create a realistic dart trajectory, where the dart has some random variation to its flight like a real Nerf Dart and naturally slows down / drops / fly’s off course the further it travels from the shooter.
This robust system allowed us to model each Nerf Blaster to have a unique feeling that was district, giving each of the 12 Blasters in the game their own personality players could master.
Level Design
The goal with each arena was creating a layout with as many routes to parkour along as possible. The more players mastered the locomotion, the more they’d start to discover new and novel paths through the environment.
This led to very dynamic gameplay, where players would be able to out maneuver each other via mastery of the movement systems.
Level Design Cont.
Like a skatepark, the goal was building the ultimately playground for players to express their freedom of movement. Players could chain together wall runs and jumping to fluidly move through the level.
Players were limited to a jump and 2nd air jump, but the jump counter would be reset by doing a wall run. This meant players could effectively say ‘off the ground’ as long as they could connect a path through the environment.
This also meant that our level design required a great deal of verticality, giving players as many surfaces as possible to wall run along and find their own unique lines though the space.
Critical Reception
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"For a Hasbro brand of toy weapons, there’s a surprising number of Nerf video games, but Nerf Ultimate Championship might be the best yet. "
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That's part of what makes NERF Ultimate Championship so special: It feels unique from the moment you begin the game. Even some of the best Quest 2 games can't claim such a thing.