The Plague with no name

Summary

The Plague with No Name is an action-strategy game where players take on the role of a CDC agent fighting an active outbreak of a deadly virus using a combination of surveillance and nano-technology. The game itself consisted of two gameplay modes: a strategy layer where the player tries to combat the spread of the disease and identify infected individuals, and an action layer where the player uses nanomachines to both destroy the virus and inoculate the subject against future infections in a horde mode top-down shooter.

What I Did
I worked with another designer to brainstorm and refine the game design, communicate with the outside client that had initially pitched the project, and create design documents for communicating with the other members of the team. 

What I Learned

Our greatest challenge from a design perspective was connecting the two gameplay layers together in a meaningful way. Early design iterations had far more resources to manage and auxillary systems to support the strategic layer, but we found that these were too cumbersome and didn't achieve the strategic depth we wanted. I learned that oftentimes it is better to stick with a gameplay loop that's fun and avoid adding unnecessary noise to the gameplay.