Niels Derderian

Junior Technical Designer

Welcome to my portfolio, you'll find my best projects!

I am looking for a position where I can combine my technical skills and my game design knowledge in a team project.

Looking for mainly a Technical Design opportunity, I also have a generalist profile: I like to touch to everything in a project.

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Maze Mart

Professional Experience / Self-Publishing

Maze Mart is a self-published project where I designed and implemented gameplay mechanics, AI behaviour, and multiplayer interactions.
This project showcase my ability to create scalable gameplay systems and technical solutions in Unreal Engine 4.

This project was completed before joining the Game Design Bachelor program at Bellecour Ecole.

  1. Duration: 1 Year (2021 - 2022)
  2. Engine & Platform: Unreal Engine 4.27, Windows
Steam Page

Game Overview

Maze Mart is a sort of adventure walking simulator with different endings based on the player's gameplay choices: He is supposed to buy a bottle of milk, but by not following the instructions, he may discover new actions, levels and challenges.

My Contribution

  • Developed and implemented modular gameplay systems (interactions, highlight mechanics, cinematic triggers, and lock & key puzzles) using visual scripting.
  • Designed and implemented AI using Behaviour Trees, creating dynamic, state-driven NPC interactions for both single-player and multiplayer environments.
  • Implemented Multiplayer systems with global notifications, small inventory, gameplay elements (Buff, Traps, Collectables) ensuring engaging online experiences with friends.
  • Created a custom saving and achievement system before integrating a Steam plugin, allowing persistent progression and rewarding player accomplishments.
  • Link: Steam Page

Tool I used:

UE iconUE iconUE iconUE iconUE iconUE iconUE icon

Level Design

Researched and Analysed real-world marts and supermarkets, studying layouts and shelf organization, creating an authentic and immersive level design.

I've also took the time to retexture all the market props (from an asset pack) to make them fit to the universe.

Obstacle

Designed natural obstacles like slippery areas, fallen vending machines, and customers with shopping carts, guiding player movements.

Collectible

  • Implemented collectibles to creates objectives and guide players through the maze, enhancing exploration.
  • Developed a custom arrow shader above key collectibles, improving visibility and aiding player navigation.

Interaction

  • Added a highlight effect when the player reaches a collectibles, providing clear visual feedback
  • Implemented an item attachment system, making collected items visibly attach to the player character, reinforcing the feedback of taking items.
  • Integrated character reactions to held items, enhancing immersion and responsiveness.

Achievement

  • Developed a Save & Load system, ensuring player progress is preserved across sessions.
  • Integrated an achievement system, displaying pop-ups upon unlocking achievements and updating icons in the achievement window.

Character Selection (Multiplayer)

  • Implemented a character selection system in multiplayer mode.
  • The system to unlock characters is based on hidden secondary objectives in game.

Mounting

  • Made a Mounting System while the player is in shrink mode, allowing him to mount crows to move faster in the massive level.
  • Made a Flying Mode and a Walking Mode for the crow mount with a seamless switch of states.

Steam

  • Self-published this game project on Steam, fully handling deployment, and store page setup.
  • Recognized early on that the game had flaws, but used it as a learning experience to improve my technical and design skills.
  • Achieved 175 purchases, with a median playtime of 28 minutes, indicating a small engagement beyond initial gameplay.
  • The demo was played by 249 users, with a median session length of 7 minutes.