ISAAC CALON
Project Leadership | Game Design | Narrative/Documentation
One-Sentence: Pistol Reef is a 2D side-scrolling shooter wherein a r​obotic pistol shrimp takes revenge on his human captors by blasting through an army of brainwashed sea creatures.​
Engine and Target Platform: Flash for PC
Differentiating Factors: Huge Variety of Simultaneous Weapons, Weapon Rotation Across Character Nodes Provide Different Effects, High Difficulty, Ability to Turn Around
Core Development Team Size: Four
Complete Team Makeup: One Programmer, One Artist, One Level Designer/UI Designer, One Project Manager/Producer
My Role: Project Manager/Producer, Lead Designer, Audio Engineer
Development Window: Six Weeks, with some polish here and there afterwards.
Project Overview
Our goals with Pistol Reef were simple, but ambitious. We wanted to make a complete 2D shooter experience where old-school fun and challenge were the bottom lines, but we also wanted to innovate on the standard shooter model in several different ways. With just six weeks of development, we were confident tackling simple cinematics, five levels, five bosses, five minibosses, seven weapons, and 15 normal enemy types. We provided Rotor with a powerful melee claw attack and then added three weapon nodes (claw, tail, and back). Each node can carry a different weapon, and the weapons can be rotated around the nodes to provide slightly different effects and controls for the player.
Project Goals and Overview
Pistol Reef Trailer
We quickly prioritized our needs across the project, with Rotor's core weapons, basic level progression and UI, some enemies, and a selection of environments topping the list. Then we iterated and added to the remaining mechanics, the bosses, and the standard enemies. It became clear early on that the minibosses were not priorities, but would be nice-to-have—they were cut halfway through development to make room for polish on the gameplay, enemies, and bosses that were already in the game. Still cinematics were added last with collaboration from an artist outside the PR team.

Since Pistol Reef was a relatively simple project and our timelines were so short, I elected​ to use a FaceBook group to track project documentation and keep the team up to date. Project documentation was split into generous "buckets" of design including character mechanics, weapons, and enemies. I provided design examples for the level of quality and detail that our artist and programmer would need as they worked.
Project Processes
Project Outcomes
We achieved every one of our goals. Pistol Reef is five levels of challenging, button-mashing shooter fun. Our weapons system worked as designed, and there is a fair amount of reward for players willing to find not only the weapon combinations that work for them, but also to find the optimal loadout for individual challenges. Our bosses are all unique and challenging, and thanks to lots of internal playtesting the experience is largely bug-free. Thanks to early prioritization we found it easy to cut elements throughout production.
Prioritizing content early on pays enormous dividends later in the project—you cut and move on with your work, rather than having extended conversations about what you "want" to keep. This has the added benefit of empowering team members to better manage their own expectations.

Making visual and audio samples during design saves much time and yields better results when the art team creates assets.

With no formal pre-production time, collaborative online documentation is an incredibly valuable tool that increases buy-in, project understanding, and productivity for all team members.
Project Lessons
