Paradox Shift is a puzzle-based first person shooter in the vein of Portal. In Paradox Shift, you take on the role of an investigator for the “Department of Time” who must race to unravel a conspiracy to sabatoge the construction of a revolutionary new “Grand Canyon Dam.”
Paradox Shift features a unique time travel mechanic that allows you to travel forward and backward through time at will to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles before and after a major disaster. Actions you take in the past affect the future, and you can take objects with you through time.
Paradox Shift was a student project in the USC Gamepipe program during the 2010-2011 school year. The game was never released as a commercial product, but it was a finalist in the “Indie Game Challenge” at DICE 2012.
Development
Paradox Shift was developed in my senior year in USC’s Gamepipe program. I worked on a team of about 20 designers, artists, and engineers. My role on the project was “lead engineer,” so I worked with a nine-person engineering team to coordinate the development of all gameplay features. The game was implemented in Unreal Engine 3.
My responsibilites included managing and planning the code structure as new features were implemented, assigning tasks to the members of the team, and helping get engineers up to speed on developing with Unreal.
In particular, I implemented the shifting feature (which allows you to travel between two time periods at the click of a button) and the tagging feature (which allowed you to tag items in the world to take with you through time).
Though Paradox Shift was never commercially released, it’s definitely a gameplay mechanic I’m interested in revisiting in future projects!