Five Night's at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery
A horror AR mobile game created by Illumix. Players have to defeat the deadly animatronics of the Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria!
Overview
When: May 2021 - Present
Role: Associate Game Designer
Team Size: 34 people
Tasks:
• Create data for events on a live-ops schedule
• Write and edit GDD's in Confluence for our games features and content
• Utilize Adobe XD to create UI/UX mockups
• Created Funtime Freddy's mechanics
• Created mechanics for the Dark Circus MR puzzle game
Visual Examples of Mechanics
Funtime Freddy
Explanation:
• Designed unique AR based enemy mechanics
• Gave feedback on character sfx/animations
• Created animatronic content data and balanced difficulty in spreadsheets
Reflection:
This animatronic was started early December of 2021 and our deadline was December 23rd of that same year. I had little time to create the mechanics, data, and stats but the core was created and successful.
The Dark Circus DLC
The Dark Circus DLC was the most ambitious and largest piece of content created in FNAF AR to date.
Explanation:
• Created core mechanics, game loop, UX, puzzles, and level design
• Playtested the experience from early prototype to the Release Candidate. Reported bugs and gave design feedback
• Wrote up content data in spreadsheets
Reflection:
This was a 5 month long project which I was heavily involved with since the beginning. I created the initial GDD's. I also worked on the creation of this MR experience all the way up to the Release Candidate. This was easily the biggest project I've been a key contributor for and the most successful one I've ever been a part of.
The Beginning:
The design team was first approached with the task of creating an MR based game mode where players would have to pay a one time fee to access a new experience. This experience was supposed to have enough value and replayability to justify the cost of it. It was also to be centered around utilizing existing animatronics and events together in a new and unique way.
After a good amount of brainstorming, the design team wrote up a few design docs detailing an experience where the player would be able to move around in a FNAF based 3D environment where the phone was the camera and the environment surrounded the player.
This idea was first actualized in our 2021 Hackathon where players could use their phone to look around a maze and tap on nodes to move themselves around the space. Having intuitive controls where players would be able to move around the environment without having to physically move was key. Utilizing the full 360 degrees of rotation in MR in a meaningful way was also another key component that this first prototype proved tremendously.
The Middle:
After some iteration on the initial concept we solidified our idea by removing the node based movement. We replaced it with a tap to move function. Wherever the player tapped on their phone, the camera/player would be moved to that spot.
We also decided that the objective would be to find clues hidden throughout the environment which players would have to use in order to solve puzzles. We thought this idea really made the most out of the MR tech as it gave players a reason to look in a full 360 degree space.
Finally, in order to incorporate our existing animatronics and events, we themed the MR space around the Dark Circus event by having each puzzle be tied to an animatronic that would exist in the space. Once a puzzle was solved the animatronic would be "set free" and then trigger an MR battle sequence. This mechanic tied together the two main gameplay elements: animatronic battles and puzzle solving.
The End:
After a lot of hardship of shoving an entire 3D environment into an already massive phone app, the game shipped with minimal bugs. A good portion of content had to be cut but this was expected. Because of the way we originally designed the experience, the core loop did not have to suffer from the cuts. While the game mode had multiple delays, it is easily the most impressive and most beloved part of the game by employees and fans alike.