StarBoard | Spunky Studios

StarBoard is a first-person, action/adventure game filled with nail-biting fights, daring escapes, and stylish parkour. Use a magic tether to swing and launch yourself through space like an acrobat or throw enemies and objects to turn the tide in battle. Wall-run, slide, and leap to elude foes, and bust out your trusty sword to attack head-on.
StarBoard was the combined effort of the entire team on Spunky Studios as a student capstone project at FIEA.

As one of the Level Designers, I worked on the entirety of the final Vault level, taking it from conception to final polish. Narratively, this level is supposed to be the final arc in Cillian's journey. So, the first half of the level is more puzzle and parkour oriented, giving a little reprise from all the action in the previous levels as we try to open the treasure vault and learn about the history of our magical gauntlet. As we enter the vault, we encounter the big bad, Jean Basque in a big final boss fight. Jean Basque, blows up the entire vault as he dies so in the second half of the level, the intensity rises up as we have to parkour and fight our way out before the vault explodes.

I used the UE5 tools to greyblock out the level initially and test gameplay, then used Blender to 3D model a smoother cavelike mesh, dividing it into sections which can be turned off for level optimization. I use a lot of different lights, decals and crystals in the level to guide the players down in the golden path, while also having a good amount of collectibles for the explorers. I designed the triggerable platforms and laser turrets for this level to add intensity in a location where combat is limited.

I was also the Technical Audio Designer of the team, and used Wwise to integrate SFX and adaptive BGM. I created all the sound effects, adaptive footsteps for the player, audio zones for reverb and ambient audio, system for implementing subtitles easily and system to make the gauntlet gem glow as it spoke.