Gears of war: E-Day
Gameplay designer | the coalition
Project Information
Engine | Unreal Engine 5
Duration | 15 months
Platform | Console and PC
Summary
Gears: E-Day is the upcoming game in the Gears of War franchise, recently revealed at the 2024 X-Box games showcase. As a prequel to Gears of War 1, it dives deep into the origins of the Gears cast, while innovating on the Gears of War formula to push the boundaries of modern game design.
Experience
As a gameplay designer on this project I was responsible for designing, prototyping and overseeing implementation of gameplay features.
This involved me creating and iterating on design documentation, which also involved plenty brainstorming and collaborating with my leads and other designers.
When features were complete on paper, I would get the go-ahead from leadership then pitch them to the wider team, gaining insight on my designs from various other disciplines. Afterwards, me and a select group of people would be tasked with implementation in engine, in which I would ensure the prototype we created aligned with the design document.
I also created many gameplay test gyms during my time at The Coalition, sometimes in collaboration with level design. These were helpful to prototype, balance and iterate on gameplay features we created, as well as define metrics.
Throughout all this time I was in constant communication with leadership and production to stay updated on tasks, as well as communicate any issues that came up.
Impact
During my time at The Coalition working on Gears: E-Day it drastically improved my skills as a designer. Being able to work alongside many talented industry veterans gave me so much insight and guidance when it comes to creating games.
One thing I learned a ton about while working on Gears was designing for the player first, and championing the player experience. The more features I created the more proficient I became at designing with the player experience in mind, which including things like designing accessible mechanics, keeping player empathy at the top of mind, doing research and holding playtests, and balancing risk/reward.
I also became much more familiar with the design pipeline, as I worked on many different features throughout my time at The Coalition. Creating documentation, collaborating with other developers, prototyping mechanics, and managing tasks are all things I greatly improved during my time on this project.
More details to come…
When Gears: E-Day releases, I will add thorough breakdowns of specific features I worked on, giving more insight into my design process and workflow!