Metal Havoc

Lead Game Design/ Gameplay Programming

Metal Havoc is an arcade style first person rail shooter inspired by classic light gun games like House of the Dead and Time Crisis. Metal Havoc came about from a pitch I made for my senior year college capstone project. We were tasked with making a game from scratch in 30 weeks and Metal Havoc is the end product of those two semesters.

You can play Metal Havoc on Itch.io

Metal Havoc by R&Y Productions

My Contributions

Reinforcing gameplay through design

My main role on the project was designing and programming the gameplay. Our design process was informed by many rounds of playtesting and iteration, with a focus on refining the game’s feedback to help players understand mechanics and game states

Here is a before and after comparison that shows the player taking damage. On the left is an early build of the game and on the right is the final product.

During playtesting we found that most players didn’t realize or understand when they were getting hurt, so improving that feedback became my priority.

Our reload mechanic in particular proved to be difficult to get players to understand and use effectively. My solution was to implement multiple layers of feedback including on screen visuals, text and sound effects were eventually employed to help players remember and retain instructions.