Tonrar: The Dark Awakening
School Project
Lead Designer | Kismet Scripter | UI Designer
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Tonrar: The Dark Awakening is a first-person survival horror/tower defense game set on a foggy island in the Pacific Northwest. You play as a police officer whose Haida ancestors occupied this very island. When word comes back that all contact had been lost with the current locals, you are sent to investigate. When you arrive, a small spirit beckons you to activate one of your family totem poles. This causes a slew of tonrars ('evil spirit' in the Haida tongue) to attack the totem. The goal of the game is to activate and defend all three totems to drive away the tonrars from the island. Click on each image below for a description of what you see and the thinking behind it.
-- Strategically place scarecrows (towers) to fight off the tonrars. -- Explore the map to find and unlock new weapons and scarecrows. -- Collect spirits to pay for more powerful scarecrows. |
This game was a group project by a 25-man team called Team Bill's Beard. All content was created from scratch and it was built using the UDK. I was brought on as lead designer and partial creative director after the initial lead Patrick Wren left for a job opportunity in San Francisco. Patrick wrote the first pass of the game design document and oversaw the beginning of the game's creation and I came in to flesh it out and make sure the player experience was as envisioned.
This was my first experience as a lead designer, and there were many technical challenges to overcome, but I couldn't have asked for a better team. I think we made great strides in the time we had to produce it.
This was my first experience as a lead designer, and there were many technical challenges to overcome, but I couldn't have asked for a better team. I think we made great strides in the time we had to produce it.