EPA Games

I was the Game Designer and Project Lead for 4 EPA projects during my time at RTI: Slime City, VR Chemical and Radiation Sampler, Fluid Dynamics Simulator, and UV Radiation Simulator.

Slime City

Slime City is a city simulation game for disaster cleanup management. The core gameplay loop is designed around sampling sites, neutralizing contamination, and safely disposing of all hazardous waste while managing a budget, executing work orders, and the public’s perception of your work.

I was the design lead and sometimes software engineer for audio and UI. Level Design was a collaboration between myself and an extremely talented contractor, Bill Freeling. I also have to give huge props to Greg Osofo, who laid a ton of the groundwork for complex equations and worker management, including shifts and their ability to go on strike.

Development Summary

I joined the project partway through development and redesigned the core gameplay and UI. Our client was unhappy with the progress made by the original team, and was close to pulling funding. I closely worked with our client to make a scientifically accurate game that was within our limitations, achieved their goals, and most importantly was a fun game for players.

We diagnosed Slime City with the following problems:

• A tile-based grid system meant that players were inherently confused by how they could select objects in the game. Playtests revealed that clicking on a tile made sense, but they wanted the ability to click on a building or tree.
• The game flow was nearly non-existent, and an unlimited budget meant that players felt no sense of challenge, just tedium.
• The UI was affectionately referred to as “death by menu.”
• The art style was confusing and uninspired.
• The game was extremely punishing despite having no real failure state.
• The cleanup loop was repetitive and simply not fun.

No big deal right?

Our redesign centered on these main pillars:

1. Camera Controls needed to change from locked and isometric to fly-through.
2. Players needed the ability to select individual objects and select large portions of the environment.
3. Art needed to change from stylized to realistic.
4. Gameplay needed to make managing cleanup crews fun while remaining scientifically accurate.
5. UI and UX needed to shift from being invasive and all encompassing to informative and helpful.

We started by overhauling and simplifying the UI for work orders. Slime City was originally designed around a card mechanic that meant players were constantly pulling up menus and clicking arrows, and displayed far too much information. For example, each tile displayed ALL the materials found on a given location (grass, concrete, etc.) when clicked. We condensed the UI to show only the absolutely necessary buttons, ranging from the number of teams assigned to selecting a cleanup method, into one clean menu, and jettisoned anything deemed extraneous.

After that, we worked towards changing the game from being structured around a tile-based grid system.

VR Chemical and Radiation Sampler

Fluid Dynamics