Erica Williams
Game Designer
Duration: Aug 2025 - Present
Team size: 3 students
Engine: Unreal Engine 5.6
Role: Lead Designer, Level Designer, Tech Artist, Programmer, UI Designer
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4226010/Shananimals/.
Overview
Shananimals is a PvP party combat game for up to 4 online players. It has a round-based scoring system where the player with the most round victories is the winner. Unlike other cutesy animal games, this game takes an unexpected turn, leaning into gore and violence. Players tear each other apart using unconventional weapons to be the last animal standing. My favorite feature of this game is the VFX of blood and the surprising ways to die.
Responsibilities
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Creation of game documentation and vision.
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Management of team, scrum, and tasks in Jira.
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Level design and blockout.
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Gameplay functionality and programming, including replication.
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AI logic and programming.
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3D modeling of the colosseum map's assets in Blender.
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VFX and technical art using materials and Niagara.
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UI wireframing, implementation, and art.
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QA testing with classmates and friends.
Approach to Level Design for The Colosseum
Although Shananimals is primarily a combat game, due to its fun and chaotic nature, I wanted to borrow level design from minigame styles, such as Fall Guys, Party Animals, or many Wii games. I wanted this game to be fairly fast-paced, so something is always happening, and dead players can quickly get back into the next round. Therefore, for my colosseum, I decided to focus more on verticality in a smaller area and focus players towards central areas. My logic is that the verticality still adds visual interest to the small battlefield and makes the space feel bigger, while also giving players interesting strategy opportunities.
When first whiteboxing the space, one thing I really wanted to incorporate was dynamic environment elements. My goal was to have the environment play a role in combat and aid in bold strategies and taking risks. To do so, I tested a duo of lava pools and moving platforms. In addition to making play dynamic, I thought this design choice also helped ground the map to its original theme of being a colosseum; however, the platforms and lava were later scrapped after playtesting.
Level Design Problem:
In my original white box of the colosseum map, I wanted to add something dynamic regarding the lava that would also give the player more pathing options. To meet this goal, I added moving platforms to go over the arena's lava pits for a faster and riskier play style. However, after playtesting, I found that players frequently died on the platforms, which became frustrating. Additionally, it wasn't much faster than the stairs route, which was much safer.
Solution:
With the addition of new movement features, I saw little need to keep the platforms (considering their problems) and removed them entirely. To still keep my goal of risk-reward playstyle, I utilized the center of the map. Since the arena is cat-themed, there is a giant cat scratcher acting as a pillar. I added resting platforms on the pillar, which can be used to gain verticality, but leave the player exposed to projectile attacks. However, as a reward, the further the player climbs, they can access better weapon spawns.
Later on, the lava was replaced by a pit inspired by inflatable wipe-out obstacles with a spiked beam. I thought this did a better job of keeping dynamic playstyles while keeping fights fair. To keep things interesting, the lower portions of the pit are safe areas from the beam; however, to escape, players must time going up on the platforms to catch a rising cloud before getting hit with the beam or even getting hit off of the cloud. This added back in my goal of having risk for reward in a more strategic form than what the lava offered.
I'm also a big fan of this new layout as it focuses more on verticality, which I had originally started playing with using the giant cat scratcher in the middle. While I did not want my play spaces to be too wide, I did want the area utilized to feel spacious. I thought the 3 levels of space (the middle platform, the outer platform, and the pit) made the space feel more inviting for combat and escape than before.
Images
