Andreas Paleologos
Game / Level Designer
INTRODUCTION_INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION_INTRODUCTION
ROLE: Level Designer, UX, QA
GENRE: Platform Fighter, FPS
STYLE: PSX
RELEASE: PC
ENGINE: UNITY
DEVELOPMENT: 2 Years 4 Months [Discontinued]
Rebound is a high octane 1v1 Dodgeball match where players face off against each other in an arena to knock out the other opponent by deflecting a homing ball at each other using a variety of different shot types with their bat. Face your foes and claim glory as the Rebound Champion.
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PRE-PRODUCTION_PRE-PRODUCTION
PRE-PRODUCTION_PRE-PRODUCTION
Pre Production / 2023 Build
During prod. of Rebound, I was tasked as its Lead Designer / Social Media Producer / Picture and Video Editor / QA / UI Design and Art / 3D Hard surface Modeler / 2D Art
Rebound started out as a vertical slice during a business management course and was the leading project moving forward after founding the indie games studio Rook Games, A company I co-founded alongside our Artist Reece Ware and Programmer James Baker. Since leaving the studio, the project is still under development however this portion is dedicated to the work I had done during my years working on the project.
Rebound's world was heavily inspired by the 2000's era of both games, aesthetics and graffiti culture. This created the general theme within Rebound's style and art direction, including how some of the maps were created and designed. In the beginning, the game only had one map, The City, a circular arena style map with two floors, a pit in the middle, barriers and powerup spawners with the surrounding environment being this futuristic city landscape packed with buildings, blimps in the sky, neon lights and big advertisement screens.
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Greybox of The City
This version is the Omega stage of The city, even playing field.
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Closer look of the greybox
This version is the Omega stage of The city, even playing field.
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The City initial design layout
This is the original planning of The City map design with details on pathways, vantage points and both top and bottom layers of the level
The map design was inspired by symmetrical arena maps in both Quake but also more heavily from Super Smash Bros omega map layouts, these are basic blueprints that create a simple but fair layout for players to fight on as no side has an advantage but its the fast gameplay that uses the foundations of the map for players to traverse and find ways to beat the other player.
This map would be the only one we would showcase as there were complications during development with multiplayer functionality so production was rushed to get what was available ready into a split screen build in a month as we would present Rebound as a booth alongside other indie studios at PAX AUS 2023 in Melbourne
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Vertical Slice Gameplay
This is the gameplay of the vertical slice demo of Rebound in 2023 that was also the same build used for PAX AUS
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Rebound Demo Main Menu
A shot of the main menu of the demo, in-game the menu was made to spin around to add more and show the level in full
Feedback on Rebound during PAX was well received with a lot of the players trying out the game saw potential in the fast paced 1v1 split screen action. The map saw some feedback in the aspect of adding more dynamic elements and variations which was brought into the next year which was seeing Rebound be rebuilt from the ground up and working on progressing the game further with dedicated time put into the project after completing our study and moving into creating the indie studio Rook Games.
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Production / 2024 - 2025
Moving into 2025, ideas were on the board from our trip back from PAX and the feedback given. On my end of the work, I started sketching out new map ideas, interactable mechanics, gameplay synergy within the level itself and this started from redesigning the first map to begin with.
The City map saw changes in both its environment but also the playing field as going along with the inspiration from Smash Bros maps, we included variations of the map to change both the arena dynamic and the way its played. There were 3 variations, each with new ways that would change up the gameplay such as barriers that go up and down, floating platforms that move and more surfaces to rebound the ball on.
As for the surrounding environment around, I created a larger space and setting for this futuristic vibe by making the arena float above a busy highway with towering buildings stretch long across to give more depth and style to the world around the players.
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The City Environment
A showcase on the surrounding space near the arena, filled with the nightlife of busy streets, illuminating towers and huge advertising boards around to see
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The City Variation 1
This version is the Omega stage of The city, even playing field.
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The City Variation 3
The 3rd variant has more dynamic play with the inclusion of platforms and bounce pads, giving more verticality.
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The City Variation 2
City version 2 has this snowflake design that divides the map with walls that will pop up in rotation, perfect for catching the other player offguard.
Alongside working on most of importing / exporting assets, environment and level creation, 2D art for the ads and PFX and VFX, social media was also handled by me for posts and updates. This included creating devlogs which went into more about the game and the department progress. For more info about Rebound including the perspective from level design, check out the Rook Games Youtube channel:
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Production Cont.
After The City map was finished, I got to work on the second map to Rebound, The Backstreets, a different map entirely to The City both in design and environment completely.
The Backstreets was inspired by the idea of having a change in atmosphere but also a completely new idea for a map. this was inspired by back ally markets and architecture set in a complex apartment block with skate parks, shops, restaurants, DJ set and a basketball court. given the 2000's style I got inspiration from jet set Radio's Kogane Cho map area, a urban style section less technologically involved than the big city but shines with its golden sunset and familiar almost nostalgic feeling which is what we wanted to achieve with The Backstreets.
Designed without a zone to fall into to die like The City map, The Backstreets focuses on a larger playing field that has heaps of room to make distance or chase another player with verticality, barriers, walls and spaces to maneuver around. This map was created to push movement further and change from the fight dynamic to offer variety in gameplay by choice.
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The Backstreets level overview
Wideshot of The Backstreets, showing the main area with the shops. restaurants, housing, DJ set and the skateparks with the basketball court in the central spot.
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Additional angles
More shots from The Backstreets
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Greybox blender first model concept
When creating The Backstreets, the first early concept I had created was in blender. It was a test of scale and was a helping tool for the art department to create visual ideas of what the assets could look like on a full scale
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Behind The Scenes
All of this effort combined created the look, style and feel that is displayed within Rebound. How it came together was through the hard work within the Design and Art Departments,
On the topic of how Rebound looks, this was some of the behind the scenes of the level material during production. This is a collection of a few photos that had early concepts, ideas, designs and scrapped content.
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Night varient of The Backstreets
After the creation of The Backstreets, considerations into Day / Night variations were created as additional flair to the map, The City had plans for a sunset look but wasn't created.
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Post Processing tweaks
During early adjustments of the lighting and post processing, The City had underwent a lot of tweaks and passes, this being an example which was cool but after some A B testing it was changed to have less bloom and less of that pink neon tint.
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Early model pass and Demo environment
This was taken after fixing both the placements and scales of the first pass hard surface models. A early look into the level without the proper lighting or textures.
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Scrapped level look
While still working on the level and waiting for textures, this was a gradient I implemented to the level floor which had one side blue and the other orange to represent the team colours. It was also used to test a early gradient switch on that would change the the ball depending on the location of the map. This was later switched out for a different texture and the ball was changed to show the colour of who hit last.
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Sticker Bomb work
As the game was inspired by that 2000's game and graffiti culture, I had a great time making dozens of graffiti sprays and stickers that would be used to plaster around the map. Personally I had a great time working in this field of 2D work.
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PAX AUS 2023 Rebound Booth
This was the booth for Rebound during PAX Australia in Melbourne. We were given our booth alongside other studios and were there all 3 days promoting the game the the crowds while also setting up, packing up and spending time at the event.