Pathogen Patrol
Role: Lead Designer
Responsibilities: Hero, Level, and Mechanics Design
Tools: Roblox Studio, Figma, Blender, MS Teams
Project Length: 8 months
Platform: Roblox
Developer: Tipping Point Media
Client: Project Lead the Way / Roblox
Pathogen Patrol is a multiplayer point-defense game that was created to assist students in classrooms, as well as regular Roblox players, to learn about the function of the human immune system. Players defend one of three body locations within a particular patient by taking on the role of white blood cells and destroying invading pathogens. Game instances were designed to take between 5-7 minutes and support between 1-4 players at a time.
The Game
My Role
As the lead designer on the project, I was tasked with creating a functional core loop, as well as the levels, heroes, and enemies to interact within it. I plotted everything out in Figma, created a player experience journey in google slides, and worked heavily with the entire team to create the basic outline for the game.
After the basic outline of the core loop was approved by both our internal team and the client, I began to hand sketch, and then block out the first game level and lobby area in Roblox studio. At the same time, I developed the mechanical design of each of the five player-controlled cells. I worked closely with medically certified members of the dev team to ensure that gameplay reflected the learning objectives guiding the project.
Lobby Sketch
Lobby Blockout
Lobby Final
Intestine Level Concept Art
Intestine Level Primitive
Intestine Layout with Assets
Intestine Final with Atmosphere
Balance & Playtesting
When the basic design of the game was complete, I conducted several months of internal testing to fine-tune the mechanics of each cell, as well as the flow of the game. The level designs went through many revisions as well due to both technical difficulties with player movement as well as scope constraints centered around how complex enemy behaviors could be. When we reached our first playtest, I was asked to work with our team’s instructional designer and project manager to design the format for the test as well as the post-play survey given to players.