Craig Stevenson

Survival Tag is a player vs player competitive game inside Adventure Academy for up to 10 players. A randomly chosen player is placed on the Tagger team denoted with a red ring. Remaining players receive a head start and have the ability to collect speed boost pick ups scattered throughout the map. When a Tagger catches a Runner, they convert to the tagging team. The game ends when all players have been tagged or the 3 minute game timer has ended. The top scoring players receive the most coins to spend in the Adventure Academy vendor stores.

In addition to concept, pitching, and leading the development of Survival Tag, I designed the game mechanics, loot table, and the speed boost spawning system that provides variety on each playthrough. Creating Tag in an existing zone presented it's own unique challenges for level design.  The zone is home to NPCs, harvestables, and interactive objects that can take the player out of the zone or draw their attention elsewhere. My strategy when building Tag was to mimic the playground activity in the real world, but allowing players to fully utilize the space without disrupting any one of the hundreds of activities present.                     

It was extremely rewarding to spearhead the first PVP game type in Adventure Academy. I'm particularly proud of the player responses to the game as after a year since release it continues to be the most popular activity in the MMO, increasing retention and attracting new players on a daily basis. Additionally, I enjoyed the challenge of making a kid friendly competitive experience with the added constraint of Academy not having physics calculations. On it's one year anniversary, the player count was adjusted from 10 to 20 and the rewards tables were retuned. LiveOps events also use Tag to increase engagement by offering unique items, pets, or double coin special events.