Poppy Playtime: Escape Trials

I was contracted to work at Mob Entertainment on a multiplayer experience as part of a 5 person team. The goal was to create a multiplayer horror experience that felt familiar to fans of Poppy Playtime. Our product was received well and received a concurrent user count of 10,900.

Tools: Unreal Editor for Fortnite
5 Month Contract
Lead Engineer

Pre-Production

Gathering References

I spent the first week familiarizing myself with the IP, playing through all the single player games and then trying the 3 preexisting official Poppy Playtime multiplayer experiences to see what could be built upon and removed for a UGC experience.

We were told the experience had to feel close to home to Poppy Playtime fans but had to differentiate itself Project Playtime, from their last major multiplayer game.

When doing research, I was inspired by viral games like Among Us and Lethal Company.

Experience Pillars

Co-op Survival: Players work together to finish tasks under pressure, with systems designed to keep teamwork essential.

Unpredictability: Randomized tasks and maze layouts keep runs fresh to prevent repetition.

Escalating Tension: Wave based respawns, scaling difficulty, and tunnel mechanics keep rising tension throughout the match.

Horror Payoff: Each game ends in a high intensity escape sequence to deliver a clear climax.

Core Loop and Progression

Core Loop

Players enter a lobby, complete randomized co-op objectives while avoiding a stalker enemy, then face a permadeath, dynamically generated maze. Wrong turns trigger jumpscares, and only by finding the correct route can the team escape together.

Progression

Players can earn gold from completing tasks, getting achievements, and finding secrets to upgrade their max run speed and running stamina, they can also spend gold to purchase skins for their hands that other players can see.

Design Choices

Task System

There's a randomized task system to keep each match feeling fresh since there are only two maps. Tasks scale with player count and force players into high risk moments where they're vulnerable to create tension and meaningful gameplay choices.

Wave Respawns

I pushed for a wave based system where players respawn every 60 seconds as a way to discourage early disconnects. Balancing the respawn frequency was a fun challenge that taught me how small timing tweaks can drastically impact engagement.

Player Scaling

We included scaling systems to adjust the game dynamically for 1-4 players, adding more tasks and spawning more monsters to keep everyone under pressure. It was a great exercise in making sure difficulty and pacing felt right no matter the group size.

Cooperative Focus

I pushed to shift the design from competitive to cooperative, to make player deaths more impactful and the horror aspect stronger. To keep teamwork rewarding without players turning against each other, I added recognition based rewards that don't affect gameplay balance.

Tunnel System

I pitched a tunnel mechanic to let monsters quickly close the gap when across the map by travelling through a tunnel system to the most isolated player. I placed vents strategically in each level to create unique, high pressure situations to keep players on edge.

Escape Finale

We wanted an escape sequence to echo the main franchise, so I pitched a randomly seeded linear chase that felt familiar while preventing memorization. The team initially pushed for it to open the game, but I convinced them to place it at the end, where its intensity created a much stronger horror climax.

Design Pitch Deck

I presented a pitch deck to my team to align early ideas and requirements for the product while proposing improvements to the game loop for pacing, tension, and retention, all of which carried into the final product.

I swapped the order of the escape and puzzle sequences to allow for rising tension, scaled down the escape sequence to maintain the tension but speed up prototyping, outlined how the stalker enemies would work and scale with multiple players, and added bits of randomization and progression to increase player retention, which had a significant impact on the average play time of the final product.

Game Loop Flowchart

This diagram outlines the full game loop and the other supporting systems. It shows each major phase, how players move through the match, and how the subsystems connect. It helps give the rest of the team a clear view of the player flow and understand the underlying game logic that drives it.

Closing Thoughts

Working at Mob Entertainment was a major growth experience for me. It was my first time in a full game studio pipeline, collaborating with people across disciplines and learning how larger teams operate day to day. I learned to communicate clearer, adapt to the teams structured process, and prototype quickly while navigating real production constraints.

Working on Escape Trials was a rare opportunity to let me blend systems design with technical problem solving, and with a small team and tight timeline, every design call had to matter. I'm really proud of the depth we delivered within those constraints and how much the experience sharpened my approach to technical design.

Jackson Clayton