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Razor Cyclone
Store Page: https://expiredjam.itch.io/razorcyclone
Genre: Single player first person shooter
Engine: Unity
Team Size: 6
Role: Game Designer, Game Lead
Duration: 10 months
(Aug 2024 - May 2025)
Platform: PC ( Windows & Mac)
Game Summary
Razor Cyclone is a single-player, first-person endless arena movement shooter. The game’s core mechanic revolves around rotating the weapon and shooting to move, requiring players to eliminate enemies to replenish their ammo.
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This game has 2 weapons, each one having its own unique movement and attack patterns. The player must rotate their weapon (which is a bike) and shoot in various directions to move around and attack enemies.
My Role
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Game Design
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Came up with and iterated on the initial design
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Created and filled out the game design document
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Conducted playtest sessions and made iterations based off of feedback
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Integration
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Setup 3D assets provided by artist for Enemies and Player
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Adjusted model origins​
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Imported textures and setup materials
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Art
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All Menu UI​
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Player HUD (except crosshairs)
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Game Logo/Icon
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Enemy Icons
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Weapon Icons
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Programs Used:
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Google Docs for Documentation
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Unity for making the game
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Blender for adjusting model origins
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Jira for task management
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Adobe Illustrator for game UI
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Photoshop for promotional art
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Weapon Affordances
Since RazorCyclone has only 2 weapons, I had to design them to be as versatile yet distinct as possible to ensure they provide the game with lots of depth.
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Not only are they used to counter enemies in different ways, but they provide different movement options. Some of their usages do overlap however to avoid turning them into "silver bullets".
Enemy Purposes
Enemies need to challenge and reward the player in distinct ways to give each one interesting decision making during combat. Each enemy fills a role, and when there is overlap, there are still elements that differentiate them.
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Because of how different the roles are, each enemy has their own unique mechanics and player interactions. This makes each enemy feel distinct, forcing the player to come up with a variety of strategies for how to counter each one.
Weapon/Enemy Interactions
Despite the player having only 2 weapons, there is still a lot of versatility in the way they can be used during combat.
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Sometimes what makes a weapon interesting isn't what in can do, but what it can't do.
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Some enemies are invincible to some attacks and vulnerable to others . However there are some attacks that have effects other than killing. These non lethal mechanics add a lot of depth and decision making to the combat.
What I learned
Don't forget about the Skill Floor
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I went into this project with the fallacy that having a high skill celling leads to a high skill floor, so I didn't design this game to be very approachable. I was designing the game for people like myself who are experienced with movement shooters. As a result, I overlooked players who are new to the genre.
Later in development we implemented easier enemies but this wasn't enough and more invasive changes would need to be made. Considering the skill floor earlier in development would have made it easier to make the game more approachable to players.