Hex & Havoc

A magic based FPS with fast paced arena style gameplay.

Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer, VFX, UI

Timeline: 10 weeks

Tools: UE5

  • Hex and Havoc is a First-Person-Shooter set in a stylized fantasy world, where players will take on the role of a wizarding student defending their school from a sudden onslaught of monsters. Players will fight their way through a magical library setting, using lightning and fire-based powers to defeat an array of monsters to stop them from escaping from the University of Spellfast.

    Gameplay: Magic based FPS
    Genres: Shooter, action adventure, fantasy
    Platforms: Console and PC
    Features: Custom SFX, music and voice acting
    Target audience: Age 12+ casual gamers

    • Design a humorous power fantasy

    • Create a polished vertical slice

    • Develop an efficient workflow for collaborating

  • A polished vertical slice that has won 2 awards at the Game Republic Student Showcase 2025.

Game Republic Student Showcase Award Winner

3rd Place Award for Game Level Design
3rd Place Award for Game Narrative Design

Game Development Process

My process for designing and iterating over Hex & Havoc’s game features.

Page section links:

Game Design

Game Design

Gameplay inspiration

In week 1, we held a meeting to pitch game ideas to each other. A couple teammates and I were interested in making a magic based FPS. I presented what I considered were some of the advantages of this direction.

Immortals of Aveum

  • Immortals of Aveum’s eye catching meta UI and VFX.

    • We could use VFX and meta UI to support our game’s magic theme and narrative in creative ways.

Doom Eternal

  • In Doom Eternal, players heal when attacking enemies.

    • This approach could encourage agressive gameplay.

  • When players chainsaw enemies, they drop ammo.

    • Our game could drop items players need to cast different elemental attacks.

Planned Game Features

Our team then outlined in a Moscow what gameplay features Hex & Havoc must, should, could and won’t have.

Features I initally developed

  • All VFX

  • Level designing the first 3 rooms

  • Knight enemy’s behavior

  • UI Design wireframes

Design Pillars

I defined our initial design pillars after discussing gameplay features with fellow designers. Overall we wanted players to feel strong and in control as they ran from room to room destroying everything in sight.

As a wizard with a variety of spells, I want learn which spells are best for which enemies to feel powerful and in control.

Do

Playful Power Fantasy

Power Fantasy

Players will feel strong and in control using their powerful spells and humored as their enemies burst into pieces and explode.

Fast Paced

As a wizard exploring a series of unique rooms with different layouts and enemies,
I want to feel skillful and competent in how I adapt to these new scenarios.

Destruction

Player Stories

I outlined what we want players to do, think and feel as they played Hex & Havoc. Based on how we want to challenge players to think, I wrote player stories describing our intended gameplay experience.

  • Defeat all of the enemies in each room

  • Find lore pick-ups about the school's library

  • Which spell should I use for this combination of enemies?

  • How do I need to adapt my strategy in this new room?

Feel

  • In control

  • Skilled / competent

Feature update workshop

Leading up to our final weeks of development, I made and walked our team through a workshop to revisit our intended gameplay experience, review feedback from our professors and decide together what we’d like to focus on. The workshop ended with a brainstorming session where we timed ourselves writing down our concerns for the project and what we’d like to refine to then discuss where to focus our efforts.

Redefining Design Pillars

Our professors and play testers alike enjoyed the environment art and assets so much that players wanted ways to interact with the environment. With our team deciding to add lore pickups, I redefined our design pillars to be less focused on fast gameplay and destruction to focus on environmental story telling.

’Boomer Shooter’ Combat

The retro arena-style level design, coupled with fast-paced combat, will have players ducking and weaving between enemy projectiles.

Environmental Story Telling

Love notes, potion ingredients and bulletin boards scattered through out the level will describe the chaotic and fantistical happenings at University of Spellfast.

Updates we decided to focus on

  • Refining UI Design

  • Adding lore pickups

  • Adding SFX, more voice over lines and music

  • Adding more enemy animations and attack responses

  • Redesigning the boss battle

  • Quick win level design improvements

Think

Retrospective

Extend mechanic into gameplay loops

Play with Prism’s magnetic abilities to discover what affordances they intuitively provide players to design meaningful systems.

Develop a combat gameplay demo

Demo Prism’s gameplay in a battle arena level to showcase her abilities and platforming.

Gameplay walkthrough