Projects
Project: City Market
First Iteration
First, I looked for reference images that matched the idea in my mind of what i wanted to create and made a reference board in Miro ( shown on the left).
I had a clear picture in my mind: I wanted to created a tower to entice the player forward and through a busy market area, so I created my level around this idea.
Next, I did a top down sketch showing the rooms, pathing, general flow and different segments of the level before I finally opened Unreal and started placing down the blocks.
When I was in engine I started with the tower, then I made sure that the connectivity between places made sense, and then I started working on the specific geometry of the individual areas.
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Second Iteration
As I continued working on this project, I decided to focus on making the blockout more detailed so this market environment becomes more realized and immersive as shown in the following pictures.
I also focused on functionality and made a quest system, an AI that detect and chases us based on hearing and sight, and lastly I created a system that let's the player throw a rock to distract the AI. I took some screen shots of said blueprints and you can find them below the market pictures.
As I continue to develop this project, I intend to create alternative paths for the player to engage with the market, and I will make some segments lean more heavily into a stealthy approach, as well as continue to make the blockout more high fidelity.
Project: XCOM Level
In this project myself and three other level designer got together and each worked on a level heavily inspired by XCOM.
The first images are part of my reference board for some inspiration on the kind of environment I wanted to create. Under is the original top down map I made, along with some modifications I planned on doing after receiving some feedback. The next top down map consists of the most accurate map layout.
During a few group discussions we got together to discuss metrics, aesthetics, cover placements, mission goals and other things we could do to convey the XCOM feeling to the level.
This particular level I'm showing it's the one I worked on: an abandoned and partly destroyed city. The pictures are before the final round of blockout which included more cover placements and the buildings to better show the environment.
We all used the asset pack, "Advanced Turn Based Tile Toolkit" by Knut Overbye from the Unreal Market Place for functionality. In the bottom there is a video showing gameplay of the level.
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Caesura
First Iteration
My role:
I was involved since the beginning in the design side, going to meetings to provide my insight in various aspects such as world building, mechanics, combat, level progression, and also providing sketches, top down maps, blockouts and pictures references to better convey my ideas. The above pictures are some of the pictures and sketches that remain from the first iteration of my level.
It was decided early on that each level designer in the team would be responsible for one level. Something that I proposed in the beginning that made it to the final product, was that my level would be "the mushroom level" and have water mechanics on it which interacted with the mushrooms.
About the process and challenges:
For this project I worked with my team of 20 game developers, that together compose Overgrown Studios, to create this action-adventure game called Caesura.
Everyone was a beginner in their respective roles, so while everyone was very enthusiastic to brainstorm ideas and get started on the project, it took us a while to decide which ideas to move forward with, which ones needed more brainstorming, and which ideas to abandon altogether. Alongside this issue, we ran into some issues in creating a pipeline that was efficient and assigned tasks to all the members of the team, which created considerable frustration amongst the team.
Because of these earlier problems, much of the design in the beginning of the project was scrapped. Thanks to our slow start, we had to reduce scope and really focus on what we wanted our game to be like since we had lost a few months of the 9 allotted for creating our game.
Second and Final Iteration
My role:
I was completely responsible for my level except for the scripted mechanics that were handled by a tech designer. I presented my design ideas for the level in a powerpoint presentation (below) and did all the different stages and iterations of my whitebox, constantly getting feedback from the Creative Director and the Lead Level Designer. I changed it many times until it looked and felt interesting to traverse through it, making sure the mechanics fit into the level constrains. I also did the landscaping and the set dressing of the level with the assets our artists produced. I contacted our environment artists for adjustments in the assets I was using so they would fit better within a scene.
About the process and challenges:
Starting in March (four months away from our deadline) in pivoted some key points in the project after receiving a wave of feedback that our design intentions did not align with what we had to show in the game.
So at this point we had to not only think on our feet, we had to do so fast with the deadlines approaching. It took us around two weeks to sketch our new plans moving forward: removing anything we were making for convenience's sake including some shooter and snappy mechanics in a game that is suppose to be about healing and restauration. Our new mechanics focused in including rhythmic/musical elements in the gameplay and not just aesthetically, and making our "attack" feel less aggressive so we could convey the idea of healing.
Of course, we didn't need to change, but we decided to be bold and convey our idea to the best of our abilities even though it meant we would have less time to do so. To accommodate this, we the level designers had to cut our levels roughly in half.
The images on the upper right are the references I compiled for my level, and the sketches on the bottom show some of the changes my level went through until the final version was achieved, with the general geometry of the valley from the top down of unreal engine as a base.
I have pictures showing the different stages of my blockout and the iteration it went through until it arrived at the end product.
The video shows a playthrough of my level.
Description:
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The first 4 pictures were before I had to shrink my level. The initial idea was to have the level in a valley (this remained until the final version) but the player would start in the upper part of the valley, go down to the bottom of it, and after adjusting the water and finding an elevator, they would go to an even higher section of the level where they would solve puzzles along the way to finally find their way out of the level. This bigger level would have 3 battle arenas.
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The three images in the middle are the beginning of the final whitebox. Instead of the whole movement through the valley, the player would already start in the lower valley and exiting the level meant going up the valley. This version only had one battle arena.
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The final pictures are more additions to the set dressing until it's final versions in the last two pictures.
