Bridge of the Dead: Escape from San Francisco
One day, the once-bustling city of San Francisco was under attack by zombies. The zombies took over the city within mere hours, killing anyone in sight. Twenty years after the start of the zombie apocalypse, you are traveling by yourself. A zombie was able to communicate with the entire zombie hive about one survivor—this survivor being you—meaning that you are now being hunted down by zombies. After a night in a spooky hotel, you wake up to several zombies breaking into the room. Luckily, there is a window in the room, and you take a leap of faith out the window, landing on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now trying to escape imminent death, you travel along the Golden Gate Bridge. While traveling, you come across a pill bottle with a label saying "Superpowers." You decide to take the risk and consume a pill. After a few seconds, the pill takes effect, giving you the power to control the elements around you. Using your newfound abilities, you manipulate the world around you to make it to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The pills start to take a toll on your body, so you decide to escape the bridge using a boat at the bottom of the bridge, sailing off as a changed person forever.
Gameplay
Role: Level Designer
Initially, I chose an architectural wonder from real life and created an interesting environment around it. I selected the Golden Gate Bridge with the theme of a post-apocalyptic world taken over by zombies. Using real-life scale, I recreated the Golden Gate Bridge and incorporated assets to tell the story. These environmental storytelling elements allowed me to communicate to players what is happening in this world and where it is occurring. After spending several months developing the story and the architectural wonder, I was tasked with incorporating a new mechanic that would allow the player to manipulate the world around them. For my project, the new mechanic was the ability to control elements, inspired by "Avatar: The Last Airbender," to create an interesting gameplay experience for players. One major takeaway from this project was learning how to maintain a decent frame rate despite the large number of objects in the scene.
Development Log: Playlist
