High Fidelity 3D game prototype
Root and Ruin
The objective of Root & Ruin was to support the development of a polished third-person action tower defence vertical slice through structured game design, QA planning, and iterative playtesting. The project required a balance between direct player combat, defensive tower placement, enemy pressure, and clear onboarding so that players could understand both the strategic and action-oriented demands of the game. My work focused on translating design intent into a usable production and testing structure, ensuring that gameplay systems, player feedback, and team development priorities remained aligned throughout the project.
The prototype was validated through internal and external playtesting, with findings translated into actionable HacknPlan tasks to support focused iteration. This process helped identify issues relating to onboarding clarity, gameplay readability, balance, and usability, allowing the team to refine the experience toward a more coherent and polished high-fidelity prototype.
Key Achievements
Designed a Production and QA Framework specifically to support milestone planning, communication cadence, risk management, and iterative playtesting across a team-based Unreal Engine project.
Created Structured Test Cases to evaluate gameplay clarity, onboarding, player comprehension, and usability within the hybrid action tower defence format.
Organised Internal and External Playtesting with 3 to 5 testers per cycle, ensuring feedback was gathered from both development-adjacent and fresh player perspectives.
Translated Testing Results into Actionable Tasks by converting playtest findings into clear HacknPlan items for design, programming, and polish priorities.
Supported Gameplay Documentation and Onboarding Evaluation to ensure players could understand core mechanics, tower placement, defensive objectives, and combat expectations.
Iterative Design Refinement: Contributed to practical usability improvements and gameplay adjustments that helped the project move toward a polished high-fidelity prototype.