Company: Ki10 Games · Platform: PC · Status: On hold
Project Overview
KIT - Knight in Training is a 3D action adventure in the spirit of the mascot platformers I grew up on. A vibrant world, a camera that shifts between 3D exploration and 2D side on sections, and a small cat with a very large sword.
It was Ki10 Games’ first project and the subject of our first nine devlogs. It is currently on hold rather than cancelled. The work is documented and saved, and I fully intend to return to it once the studio has the capacity to do it properly.
My Role & Responsibilities
As Director I owned the full spectrum of the project:
- Game Design: Core gameplay systems, narrative direction, and a map and quest system built around tracking collectibles across a hand built world.
- Programming: Built the game in Unity, including the camera manager, save system, NPC dialogue, content gating and a shop system.
- Quality Assurance: Created and executed all test plans and cases, and maintained a QA knowledge base for the project.
What Got Built
Before the project was paused, a substantial amount of it worked:
- A dynamic camera system blending dolly paths, player controlled cameras and full 2D side on sections, with transitions designed to be invisible to the player.
- A map and quest system tracking collectibles across the world.
- Core player mechanics including double jump, coyote time and a spin attack.
- Level interactivity covering breakable objects, hazards, and button driven environmental toggles.
- A level select hub with content gating and mid level checkpoints.
- Save system, NPC dialogue, shop and cosmetics, plus a full music and SFX system.
- A creature companion system, where creatures you meet in the world come home with you.
The Challenge, and What I Learned From It
The challenge with KIT was not any individual system. It was scope.
A 3D action adventure is enormous. Every system we finished uncovered two more we had not started, and it gradually became clear the project was far bigger than two people with day jobs could carry to a finish line. I had spent nearly a decade testing games at studios with the headcount to make projects that size work, and I had underestimated what that headcount was actually doing.
Rather than let it drift indefinitely or quietly abandon it, I made a deliberate call to pause KIT and ship something achievable instead. That decision led directly to Skill Check, which became Ki10 Games’ first released title, and to Boop n Burn, which has been scoped against a fixed public deadline from the outset.
I consider this the most valuable lesson of my time as a director so far. Recognising that a project has outgrown its team, and acting on it early rather than late, is a judgement call I am far better equipped to make now than I was at the start.
Gameplay Highlights
Technologies & Tools Used
- Unity Engine (C#)
- Jira for bug and task tracking
- Confluence for design documentation and the QA knowledge base
- PC development