Welcome and thank you for being here! This website showcases all of my contributions to Brain Rot Riot, highlighting my role in shaping the project from concept to completion.
Jacob Colvin Contributions
As the Vision Holder and team leader, I was actively involved in every stage of the project, from initial planning to final release.
- Prototype
- Preproduction and planning
- Core Gameplay Design
- Save System
- Brain Power System
- Player Camera
- Player Movement
- Player Attack and Infection/ Combat System
- Health and Damage Systems
- Death/Respawn System
- AI Enemies
- AI Allies
- AI Perception
- AI Behavior
- AI Attacks and actions
- Horde Control System
- Hivemind Upgrade System
- Game World and Narrative design
- Level Design
- User Interface
- User Experience
- Player Progression
- World Infection Progression
- Character Rigging and Animation
- Cinematics/ Level sequences/ All associated videos to Brain Rot Riot
- Voice Acting Zombies and Humans
Design Philosophy and Approach
As an aspiring Game Designer and Systems Designer, my approach focuses on creating interconnected systems that enhance the overall player experience while maintaining balance and flexibility. My work on Brain Rot Riot reflects my belief in the importance of iterative design, where every system is tested, refined, and tweaked to ensure it adds value to the gameplay.
I focus on designing systems that feel both intuitive and impactful. For example, the Brain Power system serves as a unifying mechanic, acting as experience, currency, and a leveling tool all in one. This design decision allows for meaningful player progression while maintaining simplicity and clarity. It also serves as bread crumbs for the player and guides them through each level.
In terms of AI, I believe in creating behavior systems that respond dynamically to player actions. The AI Behavior Trees for both humans and zombies in Brain Rot Riot reflect this by using a range of reactions (fight, flight, and coordinated attacks) that are influenced by perception and the player's actions. This helps create a world that feels reactive and alive, where every decision can shift the flow of the game.
I strongly believe that systems should not only be functional but should also tell a story. Each mechanic and interaction in the game is designed to support the narrative of the player’s journey, from infection to domination. By ensuring that every system is intertwined with the player's experience, I aim to create games where the mechanics, story, and world feel inseparable.
My iterative process includes constant playtesting, feedback gathering, and refining, ensuring that each element of the game serves a purpose and contributes to the overall vision. This helps create a balanced, enjoyable experience that challenges players while rewarding them for their choices.
Pre Production, Planning, and Communication
Confluence
In the first two weeks of the first month as a team we launched into documentation. I started off strong writing 67 confluence pages outlining the following features.
- Core Gameplay
- Player Character
- AI enemies and allies
- Brain Power and other pickups
- Horde Control
- Game World
- Progression
- User Interface
- Audio
- Art
- Player awards
- Optional features
Team Leadership
To introduce myself to to team, I came prepared with several team information documents and workflow suggestions. All of those pages were compiled onto a landing page that neatly showed each developer where to find what they were looking for.
Meetings
A Discord page was set up to keep the line of communication open between developers. I included an exclusive channel for the development of Brain Rot Riot. We had 3 voice and video meeting spaces and a main chat.
Along with constant communication in the discord general chat. We held Stand up meeting at least twice a week and scheduled larger meetings as needed that held specific objectives.
Before each large meeting I outlined all of the meeting objectives and sent them out to the team. This enabled the team to bring the most relevant information to the meeting and cut down on our meeting time.
Jira
In total our team completed 511 Jira issues over the span of 4 months. Of that, I completed 278 and logged over 50% of the total manhours for the project as a whole.
Before each sprint, I watched all of the playtesting recordings from the previous month. I created tasks, stories, and bugs for major and minor problems happening in the game or in specific levels.
Taking their work and home schedules into account, I assigned those tasks to my fellow teammates. I would review with each teammate to confirm they could handle their assigned workload. I was able to fill any holes and weaknesses we had as a team.
I created all of the automation, dashboards, filters, and sprints for the entire project. This freed up my team to focus on their tasks for the project as a whole.
Overall, It was a pleasure and an honor to have led a team of my peers and just straight fun be be able to work with each of them individually.
Prototype
Brain Rot Riot was the capstone project at Full Sail University. I created the prototype in Unreal Engine 5. My prototype was selected to continue development over the 4 months of capstone. I was named Vision Holder and took on the responsibilities of a team leader for Team Potomac Shine.
During this phase, I created the framework for the following systems in the first month of capstone.
- Infection system
- Player Combat
- Health and Damage
- Death and Respawn
- Extraction/ End level
- AI perception
- AI Patrolling
- Zombie swapping
- Key Bindings for Mouse and keyboard and Controller
- User Interface
- Level Design and Block out
Problem Solving
There were several challenges in getting the infection system and AI to function properly. Initially, I had placed the perception system in the character blueprint, but through research and reading warnings, I learned that the perception system needed to be on the controller instead.
Another hurdle was getting the Behavior Tree to switch correctly, which required multiple iterations. It ended up being a blackboard "infection bool" that would switch the character into another section of the behavior tree.
One of the most helpful choices I made during this process was changing the colors of the zombies. This simple visual tweak allowed me to easily identify who was human, saving a lot of frustrating hours of debugging.
Milestone 1
Brain Power System
Zombies can be notoriously dumb. For Milestone 1, my objective was to implement the Brain Power system into the project. This system needed to function as a single value that acted as experience, currency, and a leveling mechanic. It also had to integrate with the main menu, directly impacting the Global Infection Progression system. Additionally, the player had to be able to interact with objects in the level, but without enough Brain Power, those objects would remain inactive.
Upgrade System
The player can upgrade their attributes and unlock new abilities, provided they have enough Brain Power.
Player/AI Characters
Third Person Player Zombie
A single Third-Person Character Blueprint serves as the pawn for the player, AI enemies, and AI allies. All AI share the same controller and behavior tree. On construction, the corresponding controller assigns values to the "Is Infected" and "Is Player" boolean variables for each instance. These values dictate the pawn’s appearance and which controller possesses it in the field. Essentially, all AI and the player character are instances of one blueprint that can change dynamically, allowing the player to swap to and possess any zombie.
Infect all Humans!
Once a human is attacked and infected by a zombie, the infection sequence is triggered if the target is below a certain health threshold. The human is stunned for a short period, during which each character plays a specific animation. Their mesh and color also change to reflect their transformation into a zombie.
Player Main Attack
The player will send out a trace that will apply damage to any damageable objects it makes contact with.
On event damage, the affected character will subtract the damage amount from their current health. If the health falls below 0, the human will trigger the ragdoll effect by simulating physics, causing them to collapse in a subjectively entertaining way.
If the player takes damage and their health falls below 0, their current character will die. However, their controller will automatically possess another zombie on the field, if any are available. If no zombies are present, the restart screen will appear.
AI Humans and Zombies!
Human/Enemy AI Design
Perception and Behavior
The AI humans identify zombies through sight, sound, and damage detection. Once a target is identified, they use the EQS (Environment Query System) to determine a position from which to attack. Both humans and zombies can choose from 17 different Behavior Tree tasks and 17 different Decorations, adding variety and complexity to their actions and decision-making processes.
Fight, Flight, Freeze
I implemented a fight or flight system for the Human AI. When a zombie is perceived, the humans will react based on two instance-editable variables located in the object's "Character Sheet," which can be found in the details panel. These variables control the human's response, dictating whether they will fight or flee.
Balancing
Zombie AI!
The zombies operate using the same behavior tree as the humans. An "Is Infected" boolean switches the behavior tree to the "infected side." The zombies recognize the player as their leader and will follow them into battle. Upon sight of a human, they will immediately rush in to attack!
Horde Control
The zombies will move to the player's location when the player uses the "Call All Zombies" ability. Additionally, all zombies will follow any location marked by the player. However, attacking humans remains their top priority in the behavior tree.
Milestone 2
Level Design
During this section, each of the team members designed and created a prototype for their own level. I immersed myself in as many GDC talks on level design as possible to expand my understanding. One talk, in particular, resonated with me and became the foundation for the design of my mountain level.
I started by outlining four distinct zones on my whiteboard, each representing a unique area within the level. To ensure clear separation between these zones, I implemented strong boundaries, such as tall fences, varying landscapes, and rivers—techniques I learned from the GDC talk. Each zone was designed to feel like its own "district," with landmarks carefully placed to guide the player through each area. These landmarks acted as visual cues, ensuring players could easily identify and navigate the different districts. The boundaries not only defined each zone but also made each section feel like its own cohesive space, enhancing the overall flow and navigation of the level.
Final Release
Throughout the project, building, cooking, and packaging the game became one of my most valuable contributions. By filtering out messages in the output log, I was able to resolve all package-breaking errors that arose during development. I also addressed numerous warnings before our final code freeze to ensure the project was as polished as possible. In addition, I took on the responsibility of creating the itch.io page, crafting the descriptions and selecting screenshots that captured the essence of the game. I focused on aligning the page with the game’s theme to create a cohesive presentation. The final project size was around 3GB, and to work around the 1GB limit on itch.io, I utilized the Butler tool and admin terminal commands to successfully publish the game without any issues.
Conclusion
Working on Brain Rot Riot has been a rewarding experience, allowing me to apply and refine my skills in game and systems design. From creating dynamic AI behavior and progression systems to designing engaging levels, each aspect of the project has been an opportunity to solve unique challenges and push the boundaries of my creative abilities. The combination of strategic systems, player interaction, and level design helped me craft a cohesive experience that feels both immersive and reactive. This project has deepened my understanding of how various elements—like AI, player progression, and world-building—interconnect to create a compelling gameplay experience. I’m excited to continue developing my skills and applying these lessons to future projects.