Backfire
Backfire is a competitive multiplayer shootout with a twist: you can only shoot backwards. Players must rely on mirrors and spatial reasoning to take down their opponents.
I worked with a team of three multi-talented designers and conceived and developed the entire game over the course of a week.
I was responsible for level design, and I also did some programming and designed the audio.
Backfire was made in Unity.
Version 2.0 at EGLX
Thanks to the Hand Eye Society, the Backfire team was offered the opportunity to show Backfire at the Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo in October of 2018.
We got back to work on our one-week prototype and jammed out a four-player deathmatch mode just for the expo.
Backfire was a success! Dozens of players were delighted by the concept and enthralled by outwitting their friends in the mad shootout.
Some players even asked if it was out on Steam! Unfortunately not yet, but it is on itch.io.
Taking the FPS in a New Direction
The hook of Backfire occurred to me during a brainstorming session while I held my hands behind my head. I noticed I was holding them like a pistol. And then I asked, "What if in an FPS, your gun was strapped to the back of your head?"
This idea was so silly and impractical, it was the perfect challenge for us designers.
To compensate for not being able to see in front of you, we decided to put mirrors in the game.
However, in a first-person game, in order to line someone up in your sights through the mirror, you would have to be able to look through yourself. So we solved this by making the player characters hollow.
We settled on making the player characters cannons, so when you look into a mirror, you see through your barrel at exactly what you are going to hit.
The final design decision we made to ensure backwards aiming was possible was placing the whole game on a 2D plane, leaving less room for error by not requiring players to aim up and down.
Level Design -- Keeping it Moving
What I noticed is the most fun about Backfire just by playing around with the characters with the team was running around and shooting like crazy. The most intense moments were when we were madly circling each other at point-blank range, when it was hardest to hit each other. But the common theme was, the game is fun when you are moving.
The main thing to consider for each level was the placement of mirrors. Anywhere with a mirror was a position of power, because it ensured good aiming, but it only works in one direction. By staggering mirrors, and making their areas of effect overlap each other in interesting ways, I was able to make levels encourage movement, rather than camping. Every mirror has a blind spot, so it is always possible to flank the other player.
Further adding to the dynamic nature of levels was ammunition. This means that you can't just camp out in front of a strategic mirror, you have to go back for ammo. I intentionally placed ammunition away from powerful mirrors, and sometimes directly in the line of fire from said mirrors, thus making the run for ammo dangerous.
Sketches for the Future
I had intended to continue working on Backfire, and I had hoped to add more levels. I haven't gotten the chance to implement them, but you can see my design sketches here.
