Project Overview
I was hired at Zynga Boston right when Indiana Jones Adventure World, (then just called Adventure World,) was launched. In the week between getting the job offer and actually starting at the company, Zynga licensed the Indiana Jones property from Lucasfilm. (What's that saying about permission vs. forgiveness?)
I joined as part of the level design team, and during the 9 months I worked on the game, I created 18 new levels. During the transition to the Indiana Jones license, I also lent support on pre-existing levels. Our level design process was bi-weekly, so every two weeks would involve me concepting out a new level, designing its quests and narrative, building it out in our proprietary level design tool, testing it, balancing it, and releasing it to the live game.
Platform
Where
Zynga Boston
My Role
Game Designer
Timeline
Sep 2011-Jun 2012
Level Design
The below grid shows a selection of levels that I created for Adventure World. You can click on each to see a full-size image and read a little about each one.
Hackathon: Tyrannosaurus Rex
Towards the end of Adventure World's lifespan, Zynga Boston held a hackathon, in which teams could develop anything they wanted within 48 hours. Some chose to develop tools, others whole new game prototypes, but I wanted to do something big for AW itself.
One type of obstacle the game threw at players was "beasties," enemies that the player would defeat using their whip. They ranged from snakes and angry rams to ancient mummies and giant spiders, but one thing they all had in common was that they only took up one tile at a time. I wanted to create a larger beastie that took up a 2x2 space in the game level. Because of just how big that made a beastie compared to the player, I figured a Tyrannosaurus Rex suited the scale nicely.
I got a team together consisting of me, our technical designer Jason Kim, and one of our artists and animators, Sterling Reames. I presented the design for the beastie, Jason made him function correctly, and Sterling put together the final art and animation. Then, I assembled a short level that featured the T-Rex stomping towards the player as they ran to the exit.
Unfortunately the level I created was lost when Zynga Boston shut down, and I was never able to get a screenshot of it. However, the T-Rex did eventually make its way into the game proper, (though it was after I'd moved onto a different project,) and the above level, created by another of our level designers, shows off the T-Rex nicely.
After all hackathon projects had been presented to the studio, my team was chosen as the winners! Certainly we'd produced the most visually impressive result, (with a reveal that actually drew oohs and aahs from the crowd,) so that helped with the outcome.
It's a real shame that Adventure World can no longer be played; I'm very proud of the work I did on that game, and it's been lost to the ether. That's definitely one of the drawbacks of live social gaming: when it gets "sunset," no one can ever play it again.