I've learned a lot about design, being a lead, and learning about a new engine. I feel this project put my design skills to the test. I needed to design compelling levels and narrative with significant limitations. With limited traversal mechanic, and a focus on a straightforward goal, I learned instead of making the levels focus on the pacing, balancing combat moments and moments of ease of tension, and making the player feel certain emotions at certain areas with the help of our sound designer Erik Libouban-Gundersen, and our artists, mainly Devon Stratton and Janay Jerez who are the environment artists. This was the first time making an engagement graph which helped me look at designing the level in a different perspective. As a narrative designer, when I wrote the dialogue, I learned how to balance doing exposition while keeping the personality of the speaker in mind, all the while making the dialogue vague enough for the player to be hooked but also clear enough so they understand their overarching goal. It was a tough but interesting aspect to work on.

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Kilonova is a student project spanning more than two years of development. I left the team at the end of the first year to work on another project with a smaller team, while Kilonova was picked up by new designers, artists, and programmers.