Game of Thrones™ Race to Power (2014)
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School Project | Gameloft Paris | PC | Unity
Project description Game of Thrones™: Race to Power is a third person runner-type game for PC and Android devices based on HBO’s hit TV series. This prototype was a request from Gameloft Paris developers and it was developed in less than two-weeks time. In this game, players take control of Robb Stark as he races through Winterfell and the Wall as he collects coins, avoids obstacles and slays enemy soldiers. The game doesn’t have any lanes and the player can move freely from left to right and he can also slide and jump. When the avatar collides with an enemy soldier, he can tap the screen in order to stab him and get more points. Whenever the player is hit by an obstacle, the avatar falls to the ground and the camera angle shifts from third-person to a side-view. During this beat’em up inspired phase, the player assumes control of Grey Wind, Robb Stark’s loyal direwolf, in order to protect the fallen character from enemy soldiers coming from the left and right sides of the screen. If the player successfully protects Robb, he gets up and the Runner phase continues where it left off. Along with this gameplay comes an online game component which allows players to choose their own faction of the four available and battle for the Iron Throne by submitting their scores. Gameloft also asked us to implement a merchandising aspect to the game where people could buy Game of Thrones™ official products and validate them in-game using codes obtained with their purchase. We also thought about using figurines made especially for the game which reproduced the game’s character designs. The prototype is in no way associated with HBO and belongs to Gameloft Paris in its entirety. Only the core gameplay is playable and does not include any online gameplay whatsoever. I worked as Project Manager and Game Designer on this prototype. The team We were a team of ten students in this project divided in three game designers, five game artists, one programmer and one project manager. My role As Project Manager, it was my duty to report directly to the Gameloft representatives and communicate all of their feedback to the team. I headed daily meetings where every team member communicated the work they had done, the tasks they had left and any difficulties they came across. I handled every communication between the game design, programing and art teams and leads in order to have the development proceed as smoothly as possible. As Game Designer, I also handled a large part of documentation for Gameloft including the Game Design Document, the behaviour document, the marketing strategy for launch, a document detailing a six-month post-release strategy and another document explaining the social aspect of the game. What I learned
What I would have improved Due to the lack of time, the prototype was far from finished when production stopped. Also, we adopted a gyroscope-based control scheme for mobile which the client wasn’t fond of. Also, there are important game design problems like the speed of the run and some level design inconsistencies. We also didn’t work as much as we could on the merchandising aspect, and the runner phase takes a while before going fast. We would have immensely benefited from more time for development, but we had to respect our deadline and we did the best we could to implement all of our core features. Unfortunately, the prototype has some minor bugs but is playable in its current, final state. Prototype download The Unity prototype is available for download here. |
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