Geoff Garsson's Portfolio
Graphics and Gameplay Engineer
Ignis
A chilling feeling washes over you as you enter the ruins of a pyromancy school. Those who remain warn of a witch with a heart of ice who has taken the school as her refuge. O' brave adventurer, can you discover the secrets of the lost pyromancy academy?​
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Ignis was a class project developed in Unreal Engine 4 during the spring of 2021 in just 5 weeks, inspired by the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Our focus was on making a lore-rich puzzle platformer with an air of mystery. The player would have to master their fire powers to traverse the arenas presented. As the team's movement specialist and lead designer, my job was to make a skillful platforming experience that left the player with a sense of awe of the world around them. I also acted as the team's producer, ensuring deadlines and features were all implemented smoothly and on-time.
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A full, in-depth display of everything the game and the team has to offer, as well as insight into our development progress, can be found here.
Interested? Download the beta build now!
Gameplay
My Responsibilities
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Designed the core gameplay experience, including movement capabilities and progression.
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Implemented, tuned, and tested advanced movement mechanics like gliding and wall-running.
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Coordinated with each team member to ensure all features were delivered on time and within scope.
Design Inspiration: A Warm Light to Guide the Way
Right from the get-go, I knew I wanted to develop a 3D game with advanced movement mechanics, and the team obliged in spades. The game was heavily inspired by the likes of Bungie's Destiny and Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The goal was to make a game that didn't hold your hand and provided some sense of mastery over your abilities as you progressed through the levels.
An example of wall-running in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), propelled by the power of the Force.
Our narrative designer was super enthralled in high-fantasy, so the team also set out to create a rich narrative for those eager to seek it out. What followed was the creation of the Frozen Maw Keep, a shattered place of study now taken over by the dreaded Ice Queen. Mystery was one of the major themes while developing the game, and the world, progression, and characters were all designed to reflect that.
The Shattered Throne from Destiny 2: Forsaken, which served as inspiration for the design of the environment, amongst many others.
Movement Mechanics:
Run, Adventurer, Run!
Movement mechanics were split into several components: Jumping up to 2 times, moving, gliding, and wall-running. Gliding uses your fire-powers to momentarily suspend your vertical descent, allowing you to traverse long gaps, while wall-running allows the player to progress in otherwise difficult-to-navigate environments.
Gliding went through several iterations, though the final version used a combination of temporarily changing the player's gravity while giving them a vertical momentum multiplier to slow their descent.
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Meanwhile wall-running used sequences to play the animation lined up with whatever wall the player was able to interact with. The walls were specifically tagged to allow for colliders on the player to detect when a wall-run should occur.
The kickass team that I worked on Ignis with:​
McKenna Gameros (Narrative/Level Designer, Songwriter)
Daniel Ribaudo (Gameplay/AI Scripter)
Ryan Doyle (Environment Scripting, Lighting Artist)
Jasmine Duerk (Character/Concept Artist)
Sophie Marcus (Animator)
Terry Deng (Environmental Artist)
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While I have your attention, go check them out, they were all awesome to work with.