Phantom Squad
About the game
Phantom Squad is an intense 1-4 player tactical top-down shooter combining fast-paced combat with real-time strategy.Assemble your squad, plan your route, choose your loadout, and execute.
Use a versatile arsenal to tackle brutal missions; stick to the plan or adapt to survive the chaos
Release date: 18 July 2025
Platforms: PC
Developer: Ctrl Freak
Publisher: Super Rare Originals
Engine: Unity
My role
I worked just for a few weeks doing the preliminary work for the mission and level design of Phantom Squad.This included doing a few LD prototypes in Unity to define level design guidelines and brainstorm about the design of the game to improve upon the existing prototype (how to encourage the coop, how to add variety in missions, etc...).
A big part was also defining the high level design for all the missions of the game (mission design, level theme, 2D layout), so that a junior level designer could then take over and implement this plan in engine based on strong intentions.
More info about my work
When I started, the game already had a build playable in co-op with a few different missions (basically some kind of vertical slice giving a good idea about the game), but there was no plan for the campaign of the game to make sure there would be interesting and varied gameplay all along.In parallel of brainstorming about the game design with the developer of the game, I initially focused on prototyping different game situations in engine trying to find what was working well for the intended experience, so that I could define level design guidelines and get some first ideas for varied situations we could use in the missions.
I then moved on to defining the high level plan for the campaign, pitching many missions (what are the objectives, level theme and gimmicks if any, etc...) so that we could select our favorites and order everything to finalize the plan. This included gadgets and enemies ideas to make some missions stand out and keep things interesting.
After that, I got into detailled intentions for every mission, creating a 2D layout giving information about all the different areas, objectives locations, enemies placement, key beats of the level, etc... This would obviously have to evolve once playable in engine, but it would ensure each mission had a strong identity and the junior level designer could start with clear direction to be more effective and make sure everybody was aware of the needs from level design side.
You can see some of these layouts below. (not including all the intentions documented, just the plan)
For some missions, it was also needed to detail how some gadgets would work (camo suit for example) in term of game design, and sometimes I would design a bit more in detail a key area of a level.
After my work was finished and two of these missions could be implemented by the other level designer, I playtested this and shared feedbacks to help go into the right direction.
As Phantom Squad is mostly the work of a solo developer with a very limited budget, a big part of the challenge was to keep the production constraints in mind while still trying to design cool and unique missions ... and try to come up with strong enough intentions for a full campaign in a matter of a few days.
Four players discovering the first three missions in co-op: https://youtu.be/F45-6ugkESY?t=477
A full playthrough of the game in singleplayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBhar3W9fuE&list=PLsG0kXpZV3uxwBOfYuB_CJf_NJ49xyRFF&index=5
Screenshots
