After the completion of the port of Ratchet and Clank, High Impact went through a short transitional phase while we were shopping around an original IP. Unfortunately we were unable to secure this project. We were however able to secure the opportunity to work with Sony again on another PSP title. This time we would be working with the Jak and Daxter franchise. Because we would only be working on one project I was moved to a senior role as there was nothing for me to be the lead of.

 

It was a nice break to not have to worry about the responsibilities of leadership for a while. I would still have a full plate but my time was spent completely focused on design. Much like Krome; High Impact did not use specialized designers. So again I would be responsible for taking part in all aspect of design.

 

A New World

The world we were making for this game was being created almost exclusively by us. We were handed off some broad outlines by Sony and Naughty Dog but as for the details that was up to us. I took part in the design of the overarching story including script writing and character development.

 

Systems Old

We weren't given any of the code from the original Jak games but were still needed to recreate the core systems as faithfully as possible. One of my primary responsibilities was to work with the artists and coders to implement this. Making this happen was all about iteration. I spent days playing and documenting all of the combat systems used in the previous Jak games. After handing off fully specced design documents to art and code I waited for the first playable test builds. At that point it was about maintaining a constant feedback loop. Once we had a faithful copy of the core systems we could start to implement new systems and tweak the old.

 

Systems New

There were a number of new systems that would be implemented to make this title unique. I would take part in designing most of these new systems as well as iteration through the development phase. These systems included combat, AI, special powers and weapons. But the system that I contributed most on was player progression.

 

Player progression consisted of designing and managing a small collection of intertwined systems, a small part of it looks something like this.

• Create the list of weapons and powers, tracking attributes such and usefulness and strength

• Then plot out when and where the player will be able to access them. Making sure to keep in mind important platformer concepts like front loading content and overall project vision

• This information establishes which tools the player has available to solve puzzles and what types of enemies can be encountered based on weapon / armor strength

• This information is then used to design the levels

After designing and implementing these systems it was my responsibility to manage the information through development. At times this meant that if a power or weapon had to be moved I would replot the progression and pass out changes that needed to be made. When we made changes to the length of some levels I replotted the progression of the players leveling and adjusted the enemy difficulty scale and the rate experience was earned. In the end I spent a lot of time tracking and adjusting information in more then a few excel spreadsheets.

 

Levels

To round out my responsibilities I designed and implemented 6 full levels. This included all of the enemies, bosses and themes and art styles.

 

Fond Farewell

Towards the end of the project High Impact began down sizing. Part of the reason for this was that the studio was unable to secure a new project to follow the completion of Jak and Daxter. So in the beginning of 2009 I was laid off along with about 20% of the staff. I was chosen because I was the most resent addition to the design team. Logic that I really couldn't argue with. So with a heavy heart I gave my thanks and said my goodbyes.