B.C.E. (2017)
A party fighting game set in the Stone Age. Brandish prehistoric weapons and face off against your enemies. Smash, sock, and skewer your way to victory!
— ROLE
Co-founder
Game Designer
Unreal Generalist
— RELEASED
September, 2017
— PLATFORMS
PC – Steam
— DEVELOPMENT
13 months
— TEAM SIZE
3 full time, 4 contract
KEY FEATURES
> Master ancient weaponry, using fists, stones, clubs, and spears to conquer the competition.
> Dominate the enemy team across the ancient world on 4 stages featuring cartoonish map hazards.
> Compete in quick 2-4 player matches through local and online multiplayer.
> Flex your brains and brawn in the Burnout game mode, where teamwork and strategy are just as important as reflexes and skill.
> Earn Favor and unlock gear to trick out your caveperson and, if you're lucky, you might even get a Blessed item.
B.C.E. began as a capstone project that my co-founders and I evolved into our final co-op at Northeastern University. Co-ops are school-sanctioned internships where Northeastern students gain experience in the workforce. Instead of applying for traditional co-ops, the three of us worked with the university to establish a self-led co-op that would involve us founding an independent game studio and launching our first game. The first 4-5 months (during our capstone) were primarily spent prototyping and running a successful Steam Greenlight campaign. The rest of development was spent fine-tuning and polishing B.C.E.
Outside of the game design role I shared with my co-founders, my responsibilities on B.C.E. included gameplay scripting, level design, map hazard design and scripting, tech art/VFX, skinning for characters and gear, PR/marketing, and managing contractors.
I also directed, shot, and edited all of the video materials for this project. Here's the launch trailer:
The “BCE Machine”
BCE Machine at PAX East 2017. I'm wearing it in this pic, those are my legs.
Schematic I created in Google SketchUp.
First steps of rivet assembly after sawing coroplast to match schematics.
View from the back, showing PVC harness, laptop window, and view slit.
Laptop mounted into the basket, facing out the window.
Final product: a wearable arcade cabinet to demo B.C.E. at PAX East.
Living in Boston at the time, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to exhibit our game at PAX East but we didn’t have any money to acquire a space on the show floor, and we didn’t have a publisher to host us. I had the idea to design and build a wearable arcade cabinet to bring into PAX under the guise of “cosplay.” Thus, the BCE Machine was born.
The full build took me about 3-4 days including design, material prep, assembly, and final touches of the wrap, trim, and marquee. The exterior is made of coroplast, which is essentially cardboard but made of plastic. The harness is made of PVC (in hindsight, ouch), and the whole thing is held together with coroplast strips and plastic hand rivets. The laptop basket is also made of coroplast strips.
The BCE Machine was a HUGE hit at PAX, with attendees and exhibitors alike. The only people who didn’t approve were the more uptight among the Enforcers – we were kicked out around 5 times over the course of the weekend, at which point we would re-enter from a different location. In the end, the BCE Machine proved to be a great way to sneak our game into PAX and bring joy and entertainment to those stuck waiting in long lines to demo new games. However I do suspect we were the cause of a new rule or two in the PAX guidelines..
Creating the environments
