Hex & Havoc

A magic based FPS with fast paced arena style gameplay.

Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer, VFX Artist

Timeline: 8 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. Professor Wandsworth—the teacher responsible for the outbreak—botched a powerful spell, leaving his own soul trapped inside a tattered, leather-bound book.
Featuring compelling "Boomer-Shooter" style fast-paced gameplay, players will fight their way through a magical library setting, using lightning and fire-based powers to defeat an array of enemies and monsters to stop them from escaping beyond the walls of the University of Spellfast.
- 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 Prism’s core mechanic.

Page section links:

Game Design

Contextual Review

Planning

Prototyping

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 encouraging them to play agressively.
- This approach could make our gameplay feel fast paced and heart pumping.
When players chainsaw enemies, they drop ammo.
- Our game could drop items players need to cast different elemental attacks.

Select images to enlarge them

Initial pitch concepts

Pitching game concepts

The goal of sprint 1 was to brainstorm and pitch gameplay concept ideas and to pick an area of focus for the rest of the sprints. The first idea was to focus on using magnetic abilities for navigation and exploring a space. The second concept was focused on combat and how to use magnetic abilities to escape a horde of enemies. Presentation feedback suggested combining both ideas into 1 gameplay concept that explored using magnetism for both platforming and attacking enemies.