King Of Meat is an multiplayer hack-n-slash meets UGC dungeon creator, developed by Glowmade, and published by Amazon Games.

The game takes place in dungeonpunk universe in which the player’s route to fame and fortune is to compete in the world’s only TV show: the violent, outrageous, and unpredictable King Of Meat. A show where only three things matter: Fame, guys, and glory.

For the prototype I attempted to make something that felt like a realistic five minutes of game - even if most of that experience was smoke and mirrors. I wanted people to get the correct vibe very quickly, in a way that allowed their imagination to correctly fill in the gaps, and then frame any subsequent conversations.

The prototype team comprised two people: myself and an engineer. I was responsible for game design, level design, world building, and concept art.

After pushing the prototype as far as we could using existing and free resources, I commissioned additional artists to deliver a targeted number of assets. These included character art, environment art, animation, and a commentator voice over.

The response from potential partners was extremely positive, and within a few months the game had been signed by Amazon Games.

Starting with the assumption that any friction in our process would be experienced by the players as friction in the game, this was broken down into several guiding principles:

• Communication and understanding direction is equally important to doing the work - we have to stay aligned making one thing, every should understand the what as well as the why. Information is accessible for those who seek it - and we should encourage a culture of seeking out information!

• Methodologies change over time - different phases of the project require different production approaches - for instance moving from prototyping, through finalling, to bug fixing.

• Different methodologies suit different groups - for instance we had an art team that very early on was producing work based on a Kanban backlog, versus smaller “strike team” groups that might form for a couple of weeks in order to resolve specific issues and use postit notes for tracking.

• Always question methodology - As a team we must constantly ask ourselves if the method is delivering the best game - and then we shouldn’t be afraid to change it!

User Generated Content (UGC) in King Of Meat had to supply players with an endless stream of content to play. I thought this was key in how we framed what the tools did, what they didn't do, and who they were for. There had to be one conversation about what we wanted the game to be, and what the player facing tools should be.

Our tools had to make good levels as a default - in fact it should take effort to make something that wasn’t appropriate - with the tools funneling creators toward the best option at all times. At least for launch we weren’t interested in seeing shrines to your cat, or letting creators tell stories. All our UGC levels had to have a beginning and an end, they had to be completable, they should be fun.

The tools we shipped with were first optimised for Glowmade’s own level designers, an audience that truly understood what a fun experience in King Of Meat should be. This team helped us figure out what the feature set was, and what ideal flows should look like. By the end of development the majority of our level design work was being done in-game.

By and large, these are the same tools the player can use to make their own levels. The community really ran with these tools, creating some experiences that were indistinguishable from those created by our own team, and a bunch of levels we would never have imagined (and were always mega hard).

As part of the marketing for King Of Meat we partnered with Mr Beast to produce a number of video segments supported by content in the game. At a high level this took the form of a competition run by Mr Beast, in which contestants would play specially made levels which would simultaneously be made available in the game.

Working closely with the Mr Beast team we created a number of levels which had to balance showing the game at its best, whilst also providing the most compelling content for Youtube. I ran the team as a mini-project within the studio, with daily playthroughs to make sure we were hitting the highest quality bar, and twice weekly check-ins with the Mr Beast team to make sure they understood the game, and we were staying aligned with their plans for the show.

For the recording itself, a number of us traveled to Greenville, North Carolina, and spent eight days on-site at Mr Beast’s studios getting the shoot set up, negotiating last minute changes to the game, and providing technical support. The shoot featured 32 influencers playing as teams in a knockout tournament to win $250,000. In order to sustain the participants’ energy, the show was shot as close to live as possible, and was both a hugely complex technical undertaking and physical apparatus.

The levels we produced for this were undoubtedly the best content we made for the game, a fact reinforced by the amount of engagement they got from players, even those who had little interest in Mr Beast himself.

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