Boogie Beyond

Boogie Beyond is VR game where you play as a no-nonsense 1980's detective who's been tasked with infiltrating a mysterious nightclub known only as Club Cosmic. Groove your way through the otherworldly crowd looking for evidence and use what you find in dance battles against glamorous monsters who try to stop you, and ultimately uncover the figure behind all the smoke and mirrors... or succumb to the boogie fever!

Available for free on Itch.IO and coming soon to Steam

Article about our motion capture collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Stout Dance Team

My Roles

Art Manager, Level Designer, and Environment Artist.

Notable Contributions

Contributed to a 14-person Agile team with bi-weekly meetings to develop a VR exploration and dance battle game set in the 1980’s with an eldritch twist.
Planned and constructed 87% of the 3D assets and textures using Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Photoshop.
Designed and implemented the Club Cosmic nightclub level in Unreal Engine 5 for VR development and utilized Blueprinting for gameplay and optimization.
Created and maintained multiple Asset Burn Downs for our team throughout our 1-year development cycle.
Hosted multiple collaborative play testing sessions and asset jams.

Boogie Beyond

Level Design

Level Design in Boogie Beyond has been a central element to its development. The layout of the Club Cosmic nightclub has undergone various design iterations as the vision of the game has shifted. Care was taken in the design of the environment to give the illusion that the player is walking from the 80’s into the 70’s as they progress in the game.

WIP Final Level Main Room

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: Main Floor

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: 2nd Floor

In-Engine Club Cosmic Level Design Progression

Draft 3 Greybox of the Club Cosmic Level

Draft 4 Blockmesh of the Club Cosmic Level

Draft 6 Blockmesh of the Club Cosmic Level

Final Club Cosmic Level

Boogie Beyond

Level Development

The earliest level designs of Club Cosmic featured a basement and smaller rooms designed with elements for mystery and exploration. However, a common issue in VR is motion sickness, so we iterated on our gameplay loop and investigated accessibility options to avoid user discomfort. From testing and research, we decided upon a teleportation style of movement where players point to teleport around the 3D space rather than use a joystick. This style of movement favored an open floor plan which led us to consolidate many room ideas into points of interest in one main space. These key areas allowed for branching progression at the player’s pace and the gameplay loop was adjusted to promote exploration and progressed when the user completed dance battles.

Draft 1 of the Club Cosmic Level Design: Main Floor

Draft 1 of the Club Cosmic Level Design: 2nd Floor

Draft 1 of the Club Cosmic Level Design: Basement

Boogie Beyond

Branching Paths

One early level design uncovered some unintended outcomes during playtesting.
By providing multiple direct paths for players to choose in the level, players often reached the back of the club and missed key interactions in the open club area. We have since modified these player path choices to branch and lead the player through interactions before guiding the player through the club. This change put more emphasis on interactions in the club and made it easier for players to sense their progression.

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: WIP Main Floor

Draft 3 of the Club Cosmic Level Design

Draft 3 Greybox of the Club Cosmic Walkthrough

Boogie Beyond

Points of Interest

A core concept I follow when designing environments is that every angle and space should be picture worthy. By keeping a common density and unique placement of objects throughout selected spaces, it allowed me to increase interest and create a natural feel for the players. Concepts of “landmarking” and “leading lines" were utilized in the level to catch the interest of players and lead them through progression. Unique and identifiable models contrasted from background elements as points of interest and landmarks to catch the attention of players and help smoothly guide players around the level without being invasive. Leading lines were considered in texture patterns, orientation, and the production of 3D models. This helped subconsciously direct players through branching paths and crowds of NPCs using direction that was hidden in plain sight. The culmination of these elements is what allows Boogie Beyond to feel fluid as players explore the level.

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: WIP Entrance

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: WIP Boss Office

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: WIP Main Floor Booth Seating

Final Club Cosmic Level Design: WIP 2nd Floor Railing

Sculpted Eldritch Fish Model

Boogie Beyond

Asset Design

A common method we followed when designing furniture and structural models for the game was to look at items from the 70’s and 80’s in a nightclub setting. and then research how we could corrupt them with an eldritch aesthetic. A lot of inspiration for Boogie Beyond’s 3D models came from studio 54, as it was one of the largest disco night clubs of the 70’s and 80’s.
It was perfect for reference and inspiration.

WIP Fish Tank Wall in the Boss’s Office

Boogie Beyond

Process

An example of an otherworldly corruption would be the railings on the second floor. I researched railings as well as metal designs in eldritch artwork. I then discovered an overlap in the ornateness of both and investigated designing a style of railing that would combine them and fit our painterly texture-focused style. I iterated on it until our final design choice which featured ornate gold fencing and a glowing eye crest and a lava lamp textured arm rest.

Notepad UI Animations

Large Animated Tentacles

Modular Railing 3D Models

Animated Lava Lamp Railing Arm Rest

WIP Notepad UI Textured Model

WIP Notepad UVs

Tunnel Entrance Textured Model

Boogie Beyond

Optomization

To optimize assets for the VR experience, we decided to prioritize details via textures rather than polygonal modeling details.

From the beginning, we wanted to make a fun casual game and early concept tests landed on using a painterly style which worked well with both the eldritch and disco themes. Using dashed black lines gave a comic-like feeling to our world. From the point of view of technical implementation, we could save memory resources by not applying shaders or post-processing effects to all our assets.

Booth Seating Textured Model

Spiky Tentacle Textured Model

9 Alternating Tentacle Animations

Boogie Beyond

Asset Tracking

Asset tracking has been a big focus for me. I understood how many 3D assets would be needed, and the importance of an organized and efficient workflow to keep track of these models from concept to implementation.
Therefore, I created multiple charts tracking the stages of completion for our assets. These charts helped guide our task assignments and simplify our view of progress and overall goals. It is my goal in doing this to mirror industry standard practices.

File Naming Abbreviations Key

Section 1 of the Environment Art Burn Down Chart