Freezing Friction is a fast paced third person action game where you slide, grapple, shoot and slash your way around an icy cavern in order to hunt down giant worms.
ROLE
Technical Designer
GENRE: Action.
TEAM SIZE: 17
[2 producers, 7 designers, 8 artists]
PROJECT DURATION: ~12 weeks
ENGINE: Unreal Engine 5
PLATFORM: Itch.io
The Game
My Role And Responsibilities.
​I joined the project near the end of its pre-production phase.​ This meant that the majority of the core gameplay was already designed and defined.
Hence my main role for this project was to iterate and experiment upon the existing systems while staying true to the core pillars of the game: High Octane, Mechanical Mastery and Massive Enemy, Specifically in regards to the player-character, camera and controls.
​
Based on pre-production playtesting feedback, a few key points were identified:
1. Abrupt deaths: Players felt as if they were doing well one moment and then they were dead the next.
2. Quite a few players noted they would've liked to see controller support.
3. There was an imbalance between the melee and ranged weapon causing most players to not utilize the ranged weapon.
4. Some players experienced motion sickness and felt nauseous while playing the game.
5. A general lack of game polish.
To combat these issues I worked on the following:
1. Designed and iterated upon the player's health.
2. Designed and Scripted an Aim Assist system.
3. Iterated upon the player's combat toolkit.
4. Integrated Accessibility options for motion sickness.
5. Implementing a Saving and Loading system:
High Octane:
In Freezing Friction you control a robot equipped with ice skates, grappling hook, a massive rocket booster, sword and SMG. Using these tools the player slides, grapples, shoots and slashes their way through an icy cavern in order to hunt down giant worms, all the while fighting off its spawn.
​
Mechanical Mastery:
Players must learn how to master their toolkit in order to stay alive and get the highest score possible.
​
Massive Enemy:
Giant worms roam this icy cavern. In order to slay them the player must break their armor by generating heat through fast movement and slaying the worm's spawn.
​​
​
​​
Designed And Scripted An
Aim Assist System
Though not necessarily our intended way to play the game, quite a few players expressed interest in controller support.
Recognizing that aim assist was essential due to the game's fast-paced, skill-intensive nature I set out to implement this feature.
I researched aim assist implementation in fast-paced shooters such as Titanfall 2, then implemented a system that fit our game. I also added a subtle aim assist for keyboard players to improve accessibility.
While most players stuck with keyboard and mouse, those who used a controller had a much smoother experience, and even some lower-skill mouse and keyboard players benefited from the subtle aim assist.
Click the blueprint image to open it in full scale
Aim Assist System
Iterated Upon The Player's Combat Toolkit
There was an imbalance between the melee and ranged weapon causing most players to not utilize the ranged weapon.
Based on testing notes I identified that the ranged weapon was the main issue, so I researched fast-paced ranged characters (Sojourn from Overwatch, Mul-T from RoR2) and rapidly prototyped changes to the ranged weapon. I designed a railgun/sniper that rewarded skillful gameplay with health regeneration on kill and experimented with knockback for vertical mobility.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
The melee weapon also had issues with its heat resource and grapple slashing, which caused players to lose momentum. I redesigned it to generate heat instead of consuming it, improving the combat loop. Grapple slashing was restricted to enemies and the worm to prevent movement loss caused by hitting the environment.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Ultimately, I scrapped the railgun, as it did not fit the combat flow. Instead the weapon roles were refined through enemy design:
-
Melee attacks break the worm's armor.
-
The SMG is the optimal weapon to deal damage once the armor is gone.
These changes greatly improved combat flow, and the combat received highly positive feedback.
Railgun firing single shots
Railgun knockback used for traversal
Grapple Slash before
Grapple Slash after
Integrated Accessibility Options For Motion Sickness
Some players experienced motion sickness and nausea while playing the game.
I gathered player feedback and studied common motion sickness triggers, such as FOV changes and excessive camera movement. Since fully removing these would hurt the high octane game feel, I instead implemented adjustable accessibility settings.
With these options enabled most-if not all-players who initially experienced motion sickness no longer did.
​
​
Accessibility Settings Off vs On
Implementing A Game Saving And Loading System
I set out to improve the overal polish of our game. By implementing a saving and loading system and set up general settings, allowing players to keep their setting preferences between play sessions.
With prior experience in game saving, I adapted logic from a previous project, initially learned through Unreal Engine tutorials and documentation.
This system enhanced the experience for players downloading from Itch.io and streamlined internal testing by allowing for quick swapping between graphical, aim assist, and display settings.
Save/Load Data logic
Example of how data is saved to the slot
Designed And Iterated Upon The Player's Health Loop
Players felt that they died too abruptly. To address this without reducing difficulty, I designed a Last Chance mechanic inspired by Titanfall 2. When a player reaches 0 health, they enter a dying state with a timer. To survive, they must kill an enemy to regain health, if they fail to do so or take damage this still results in death. This keeps game-play high-octane, by rewarding quick reactions.
​
Last Chance Mechanic
​
To maintain challenge, I introduced a health decay system inspired by Roboquest. Taking damage reduces max health, which slowly recovers when healing, preventing excessive regeneration.
These systems received positive feedback from industry professionals during the industry showcase day organized by BUAS.
Health Decay Mechanic
