Join the European Space Agency’s SHIELD mission and discover why aliens aren’t the biggest threat to us! At least, that is what I did as Game Designer and Producer for this project. But feel free to take a look at the trailer first (where I created the storyboard, did the recordings, and editing):
In ESA SHIELD, you become the head of the European Space Agency’s Space Safety Department and protect Earth from real cosmic hazards like Asteroids, Space Debris, and Space Weather. This science-based Planetary Protection Simulator combines tower defense, roguelite, and strategy elements to create a unique gameplay experience grounded in reality.
Why did I do this?
As a little sci-fi and space nerd there was not much choice rather than working on a project together with the european space agency…
Besides the obvious reason, the challenge appealed to me the most. A Steam version, a mobile phone version, and an additional VR project within 8 months based on real scientific and sometimes complex topics from space and space safety. Even the initiator of the project said that you have to be a little crazy to pull this off. It was simply a unique opportunity to work with a space organisation that also offers a lot of learning potential due to all the challenges involved.
What did I do:
A lot.
This project was indie development on crack at it’s core. A team of 4 developer, myself included, going through Kickoff, pre-production, production, marketing, early access release, continous updates etc. in a timespan of 6-8 months. Additionally, for the VR part of this project also a dip into hiring and contracts.
To go into a little more detail, I did the entire game design. Core Game Loop, Gameplay Mechanics, Dialogue Writing, Quest Design, Balancing, the works. I started out with a “paper prototype”. A simplistic 2D version to convey the rough gameplay vision of the project owner:
From there, I developed the individual mechanics. Which buildings are available, how to buy them, how to place them, the mini-game where you can assemble satellites. For every feature I wrote a feature page mainly used by the programmer to understand the rules:
Additionally I’ve worked in the Unity Engine whenever the code was done for the content. I added the quests and put in the values, I adjusted certain elements like Asteroid Trajectories around the planet and did the whole balancing of values in Unity. Supported by my beloved value table:
Last but not least, I want to mention that I did the full project management for the team. I created the milestones (In consultation with the Product Owner), created an easily accessible and clear milestone plan, created tasks out of it in Jira, conducted weekly Sprint planning and Reviews, adjusted the plan, did a priority matrix with the team together, carried out retrospective meetings after milestones, checked back with each team member regularly, solved some conflicts, coordinated deadlines for submissions (e.g. the Indie Arena Booth), worked on presentations for the ESA, presented them and much much more. At some point, the whole project (not just ESA SHIELD) involved more than 20 people who needed to be somewhat coordinated.
Sure, sometimes it got messy, sometimes it didn’t even work. But in the end, I was part of a project, I can be very proud of.
What did I learn?
I’m basically a rocket scientist now.
Jokes aside, I’ve learnt quite a lot.
With this short time frame, especially in game design, it became even clearer to me how important good research is. And yes, when I talk about research in game design, I mean playing games, of course. Playing games in bulk. At least half of the problems we ran into could have been avoided with sufficient research. And we probably avoided twice as many mistakes because of the research we did. The research you have to do when incorporating a real-life topic into a game is also fun. In my case, it was space safety. I learned an incredible amount about orbital mechanics, satellites, rockets, asteroids, space debris, the sun and so on.
Also, you as designer can feel as clever as you like when it comes to game design. If the player doesn’t understand it, it’s all pointless. Player guidance, proper tutorialisation, giving the player intrinsic motivation and goals are essential. But I also had to realize that eight months is simply not that much time to make a game for two platforms and a VR application on top of that. You have to cut corners; you are bound to forget something. And if you do it right it can still work.
It wasn’t the first time I had been the producer for a team, either. Nor was it the first time I had done so in such a short time frame. But it was the first time I had been involved in such a professional project with a real agency behind it. And the pressure that comes with it, as well as the conflicts. I learned a lot about interpersonal communication, when to intervene, and often received feedback that asking how someone was doing after a milestone or after a major sprint planning session was really great.
I am very happy that I was able to have this experience and I would like to thank everyone who made it possible and worked with me on it. It was really great.