Birds of Impalitism
Game Overview:
Birds of Impalatism is a Vaporwave-Inspired, momentum-based First-Person Shooter where movement doubles as combat. Set in the decaying Palamus Mall, players navigate Fast-Paced, replayable levels to uncover Maria Gomez’s cultist past through kinetic, momentum-driven gameplay.
Engine: Unity
Platform: PC
Type: Summer Project
Team size: 5-8
Duration: 2 Months
Tools: Unity, Trello, GitHub
Role: Technical Designer
Build: Itch.io
Snapshots
Gameplay & Features:
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Momentum-based FPS combat where movement triggers your CD launcher
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Multiple CD types, each with unique effects on movement and bullets
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Short, puzzle-like levels built for replayability and speedrunning. Free the ghosts. Face the past.
Process
Goal: Designing the Save System
The goal was to create a save architecture that preserved player progress, collectibles, and environmental state across multiple scenes while maintaining design flexibility for future systems. I focused on defining how different subsystems like batteries, world flags, and goggle chunks communicate through a unified data model that balanced simplicity, scalability, and reliability.
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Broke the system down into separate progression scenes, ensuring each area tracked its own state and could be reloaded without affecting others.
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Mapped out how elements like player position, collected items, and unlocked areas would be recorded and restored across sessions.
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Created a design doc blueprint for how different components interact with player data, world objects, and created a legend to help other designers understand system flow.
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Focused on keeping the design scalable, so future content or mechanics could be added without rewriting the entire system.
Goal: Programming the Save System
The goal was to bring the design to life by implementing a reliable, lightweight system that saved and restored the player’s state seamlessly between scenes. Each step of development focused on making the system readable, efficient, and easy to expand.
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Built a save controller that stored player data, such as position, collected items, and world flags, whenever the player reached a checkpoint or exited a scene.
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Programmed each subsystem (battery tracker, goggle chunks, and world flags) to report their state back to a unified save file for consistent restoration.
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Created an automatic loading process that reconstructed the world each time a scene was entered, allowing the player to pick up exactly where they left off.
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Implemented safeguards against data corruption by validating save files and resetting invalid entries to prevent errors.
My contributions to the team:
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Designed and implemented Core Systems with a cohesive structure for player Progression, Saving, and Narrative Flow.
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Built a Save/Load System to persist Player Stats, Dialogue Progression, and Lore Collection, ensuring continuity across play sessions.
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Collaborated across Design and Programming disciplines to align technical Implementation with narrative intent and user Experience goals.
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Designed the Dialogue System’s logic and interaction flow to strengthen story delivery and Player Immersion.