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Up in the Air

Zany Open World

Game Designer / Producer

ENGINE: Unreal Engine 4
PLATFORM: PC, Playstation 4
DEV TIME: 6 Months
TEAM SIZE: 13 People
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Game Overview

Game Overview

Game Summary

Up in the Air is zany, open-world game about a balloon dog exploring a demented carnival populated by crazy children. Players must use a variety of power ups, from water balloons to ground pound, to fend the kids off and collect carnival tickets. Players can burn Big Weenie, knock over a castle, trap children in a cardboard jail, master hopscotch, become radioactive, turn off the sun, or get popped by a cactus. If they are particularly unlucky, they could even find the notorious child Chunkles and his gaping maw.
 

Up in the Air was made by Studio Jiggly over 6 months between July and December 2017. The team started designing their game mechanics by asking the question, “What do balloons do?” and then rapidly prototyping as many answers to that question as possible. The team took the funniest prototypes and crafted Up in the Air around them, focusing on keeping the experience funny, open, and cartoonish.

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Throughout the project, the team has learned how to make open-world games, how to organize themselves without a dedicated producer, has found the dankest memes and made great friends.

Screenshots:

Inflation

Inflation

Using the inflation power up to see the back half of the park from a higher vantage point.

Climbing the Castle

Climbing the Castle

Looking back at the park from halfway up the castle.

Air Blast

Air Blast

Using the Air Blast power-up to knock over stacks of barrels.

Chased by Chunkles

Chased by Chunkles

Being chased by Up in the Air's ultimate enemy: Chunkles.

Dancing Children

Dancing Children

Children ragdoll as the player blows them away with the Water Balloon power-up.

Big Weenie

Big Weenie

In an homage to Dallas' own Big Tex, the giant child statue in the Western section of the park can be set on fire.

Child Mob

Child Mob

A mob of children chase the player through the Western section of the park.

Development Timeline:

  • Prototyping // July 1st  - July 23rd:

    • We took the initial pitch proposal for a co-op physics puzzle game about balloon animals and prototyped mechanics based on that concept. Eventually we decided to shift focus away from puzzles and towards a carnival-like open-world sandbox.

  • Proof of Concept (Tech) // August 21st - September 7th:

    • We programmed core mechanics, including power-ups and child-enemies, tested the technical limitations on the game, and addressed core design risks, such as how many power-ups the player should have at one time and how the player should acquire power-ups.

  • Proof of Concept (Gameplay) // September 8th - September 21st: 

    • We designed and implemented Gameplay Bites, small chunks of gameplay that could be reused to develop the open world quickly. We also began creating representative assets, and putting together a small "level" that could demonstrate the fun of the game to stakeholders.

  • Vertical Slice // September 22nd - October 12th:

    • We implemented one of the game's three regions (Medieval) to final quality in terms of assets and gameplay. We also designed and implemented "advanced" Gameplay Bites that required more player-skill to complete​ to flesh out the gameplay experience.

  • Alpha // October 23rd - ​November 13th:

    • We implemented the remaining two regions of the game (Carnival and Western) to final quality in terms of assets and gameplay and improved the Medieval region based on feedback. We also​ finalized the Shop system and the Tutorial.

  • Beta // November 14th - ​November 27th:

    • The team finalized the Skin system, fixed critical bugs, and improved the UI and decoration quality of the game.

  • Release to Master // November 28th - December 12th:​

    • The team fixed ​all major remaining bugs and balanced Gameplay Bites based on feedback.

Screenshots
Development Timeline

Role and Responsibilities

Game Design:

  • Codified and documented the team's core vision for the game

  • Ensured that design decisions made throughout production adhered to our core vision

  • Oversaw world design to ensure proper player flow and content density

  • Maintained useful and usable documentation in multiple formats

  • Derived fundamental values for movement and power-up system (jump height, movement speed, etc.)

  • Designed currency and power-up systems that encouraged player engagement

  • Lead design and implementation of Gameplay Bite system

Production:

  • Served as Scrum Master

  • Lead Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective meetings

  • Maintained bug tracking and asset database documents

  • Created Build Notes, Sprint Plan Calendar, and Sprint Presentation documents for each sprint

  • Facilitated communication between disciplines

  • Moderated team design meetings

Polish and PRototyping:

  • Implemented all game particles

  • Communicated music requirements and feedback to composers 

  • Scripted prototype version of Gameplay Bites with Level Design team

Role and Responsibilities
Postmortem

Postmortem

What Went Well

  • We created a fun, funny, huge game that we are proud of as a team.

  • Our team culture was fun, supportive, communicative, and productive.

  • I was able to set out game pillars that were true to the team's vision, got buy-in from everyone, and were referred to by all team members when making decisions.

  • I balanced my production and game design roles well.

  • I applied my skills in systems to design to the creation of the currency systems.

  • The team cut features that weren't working or weren't feasible early, saving us a lot of time and frustration.

What Went Wrong

  • We didn't schedule playtests early enough into sprints, leading to late changes in certain features.

  • Initially, our pipelines to external composers weren't clear, leading to lost iteration time on our music.

  • Up in the Air has so much content that some of it has less polish than we wish it did.

What I Learned

  • If you have a game that is fundamentally fun to play around with, every other part of production becomes easier.

  • Creating good, descriptive, actionable pillars for a game is a core part of making sure the game is cohesive.

  • It is important to have systems in a game that encourage the player to play in the most fun way possible, otherwise they are likely to get bored or frustrated.

  • Buy-in is one of the biggest factors in a project's success.

  • Cutting features that aren't feasible to create allows more time to be spent on features that are feasible and could benefit from polish.

© 2019 by Jake Patton. Proudly created with Wix.com

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