EGGY PARTY - PROCESS

Overview

As a Map Design Intern on Eggy Party, it was my goal to make casual, relevant levels while pushing the limits of Eggy Workshop. I constantly experimented with new ideas, striving to make contained experiences and show off a rapidly evolving editor.

Levels

I approached each level I made for Eggy differently, starting with a prototype for a core concept to fit an event theme (horror, Halloween, back-to-school, etc.) and developing player beats with that concept in mind.

After submitting a proposal with outlined beats and references, I created environments and setups to fit planned beats, then playtested multiple times before release.

  • Dungeon Eggy showcased the Eggy skill and item systems, and was inspired by “Jaquaysing the dungeon“: multiple sublevels, alternate paths, and secret areas, with hubs for players to reorient themselves. Several areas are recontextualized once completed.

  • The Eggsorcists maps emphasized lighting, enemy encounters, and a few eye-catching views, with Eggsorcists - Ghosts! featuring more verticality, varied traversal, and cover blocking the player’s view.

    • Bookshelves making up the level geo create ambushes, multiple “floors“ players can reach with ladders, and corners for occlusion and traversal.

    • Enemies hide in shadowed or occluded areas, and players are driven to retreat once they enter line-of-sight. All enemy types were built around this retreat heuristic, including devils with homing arrows and exploding runner zombies meant to flush the player.

Combat

  • Dungeon Eggy followed a few rules of thumb for encounters:

    • Each of the 6 enemy types is introduced in isolation, then combined with others later.

    • Enemy speed and health are inversely proportional.

      • The more specialized the enemy, the more its XP payout/the rarer its item drops.

    • Enemies can only target one player at a time.

    • Each section of the map (top floor, main floor, aqueduct) only has 3 enemy types, with set “habitats“ for each type (such as Undines in the aqueduct).

  • Eggsorcists - Ghosts! has a different logic:

    • All enemies encourage movement.

    • Enemies are introduced individually, then grouped in 2-type setups with standard and high-threat enemies. Reaching the high-threat enemies first is harder, but worth it.

      • Standard Ghosts + ranged Devils with homing attacks

      • Ghosts + exploding Zombies

    • Higher-priority/higher-threat enemies have consistent counts and health regardless of player count, while the standard ghosts scale with player count.

    • Encounters punctuate the level as ambushes, but with few total enemies

  • Using Eggy’s skill and special effects editors, I crafted abilities with punchy visual feedback.

    • In Dungeon Eggy, each skill has its own utility (lifesteal, knockback, AOE etc.) and particle systems + SFX to afford it.

  • I added combat tech for more experienced players (given the popularity of Hype Arena, Eggy’s MOBA mode):

    • In Dungeon Eggy, chaining the abilities Garnish -> Munchies -> Upset Stomach works as an effective combo, especially with a wall nearby. It applies several debuffs, keeping enemies in place for the AOE finisher (Upset Stomach).

    • In Eggsorcists, tapping the proton pack button will deal damage faster, but with less targeting control. Holding the button deals gradual damage, which compounds with several players on one target.

Promotion

  • I used Eggy’s Screenshot Mode to take thumbnails and screenshots for Discord promotion.

  • Following map release, I made posts on TikTok, Discord, and Instagram.

    • Short-form trailers with a consistently visible map code, catchy background music, and bright thumbnails got considerable traction, especially on TikTok.

    • A cadence of short videos throughout a weekend (1 per day) was consistently successful.