Project Spark was a wonderful project to work on. At the time, Microsoft wanted to have their own third person Little Big Planet type game in their stable and thus tasked Skybox Labs to help out with fleshing out and pushing the envelope with Project Spark’s native visual scripting system built off of Kodu Game Lab.

To that end, my duties involved prototyping game levels and the creation of game assets that specifically showed off features that demonstrated the incredible flexibility of the scripting system. This included prototyping new gameplay modes and mechanics. Notable prototype levels I’ve done were for a forest platform level, an “obstacle course” level, and a Cthulu-esque level.

Forest Platform Level

• Created using foliage and “wood” assets

• Utilized the Kodu scripting system to:

  • generate a simple encounter with a goblin

  • demonstrate lighting effects

  • generate destructible assets

• Experimentation with movement and spatial metrics

Obstacle Course Level

• Created using “stone” and castle themed assets

• Utilized Kodu scripting system to:

  • generate environmental hazards that can affect the player health wise and also movement

  • generate hazards that could move, and also ones that occupied volumes of space

  • generate win/loss conditions

• Experimentation with movement and spatial metrics of interior spaces

Cthulu-esque Level

• Created using “spooky” forest assets

• Utilized the Kodu scripting system to:

  • generate thematic “spooky” environemental effects like fog and lighting

  • created an animated door blueprint that utilized existing animations in novel ways (used a tree root system to look like a magical portal being ripped open by writing tentacles)

  • created a trigger system to activate the portal

• Experimentation with spatial metrics and performance with generating a mixed “indoor” and “outdoor space”