BEWARE
ROLE
Product Owner, Level Designer
DESCRIPTION
Beware is a survival horror game where you play as a journalist trying to capture a photo of a supernatural bear in an abandoned national park.
The intent for Beware was to instill a sense of anxiety in the player by tasking them with finding and getting close to a deadly creature to complete their main objective and then forcing them to alert the bear to their presence before escaping.
DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
Jan 2025 - May 2025
GENRE
Survival, Horror
PLATFORM
Unreal Engine 5
PRODUCT OWNER
As product owner, it was my job to make sure the team wasn't taking on too much scope as well as maintaining the overall vision for the final product. I managed sprint planning meetings with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration while making sure we were meeting all of our deadlines.
I coordinated with testing feedback to propose meaningful improvements to the game's structure, such as improving overall visibility and better diversifying the level design.
Being product owner for this team helped me to learn how important proper retrospectives are. There were a lot of team/communication issues that were resolved because we fostered an environment where team members felt comfortable discussing these issues.
LEVEL DESIGNER
As level designer on Beware, I learned a great deal about guiding players through levels, and managing to show off that space while a dangerous enemy patrols around. In the game, the player has to get a clear photo of the bear, so managing areas with different levels of lighting vs. cover was crucial. Because the game's environment was so dark, it was also important to spread out major landmarks and paths so the player wasn't just navigating through a maze of trees and bushes with no clear direction.
Throughout this project, I kept thorough documentation of my iterative process so I could compare design aspects to previous iterations and make sure my team was always updated on my progress so they could give me feedback.