This project took approximately one month to put together. My goals were:
1. To practice level design techniques taught by Peter Field in this video.
2. To practice composition and utilizing it in the level to guide player flow.
3. Learning how to budget personal time and scope to complete something.
4. Use the base character and focus on a mechanic that could be utilized as a theme throughout the level.
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This was all done in Unreal Engine 5 starting from a base engine.
The video above shows the earliest recording I had of the level (played by my wife, my esteemed playtester).
I started by typing everything I was considering about the project into a text file. Shout out to Steve Lee for getting past the "blank canvas" effect!
What is the player's goal? What is the setting and theme? What is the mechanic I'm going to focus on that the player will be using throughout the level?
Once I had finished dumping all of my thoughts onto the page, I started filtering through it to make sense of it all. I started by formulating an end goal: "I want the player to start here, and make them go somewhere far off in the distance."
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Within the first few days I started piecing together a structure:
1. The setting takes place a few days after a catastrophic event - a sudden emergence of hideous monsters has thrown the world into chaos. The player is at the place where it all began, a lab disguised as a distribution center.
2. The player is just a lone survivor trying to make ends meet and hasn't seen anyone for days. Suddenly, they get a distress call from a location nearby.
3. Since I'm not going to design a character with abilities or skills, I decided to focus on something environmental. The player will be able to interact with things, and so in this level they will use vehicles to help them.
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Once I had something to leap from, I hopped in editor and started placing blocks. Usually I prefer blocking out the whole footprint to ensure I have the right scale and pacing, but I really wanted to flesh out this first room to be my guiding star for the rest of the level.
In this room, I focused on:
1. Framing - I wanted the hole in the ceiling to be the first thing the player sees. I cleared some of the visual obstructions just so the hole could be viewed with no distractions. Next, I wanted to frame the keycard panel in the distance to communicate that is the next thing they should go to.
2. Composition - I placed the entrance at an angle where the hole in the ceiling sat on the top left of the screen, and the panel sat on the right hand side of the screen. Over the next few weeks I would slowly try to balance out the image.
3. Lighting - I wanted to use a distinct light source to help draw attention to these areas. The hole in the ceiling naturally contrasts the darker interior. I put a red light on the panel to try to draw some attention to it (and I animated it to push it further).
As for the gameplay mechanic, it really started to make sense once I put together the player interaction blueprint. Initially, the player would just need to use the object to reach the top of the shelf, but I figured that was a bit too easy. So I added a second step where the player needs to raise a second lift to create a bridge.
The intent is that the player should attempt to jump and fall, failing at the jump. But by coincidence, they land on top of another lift which they would interact with to raise a bridge and bring them back up to try the jump again.
The next area was going to change the pacing. Where the previous room tried to explicitly guide the player to the solution, in this area I experimented with the player getting lost for a bit. By doing this, I would hope that the player would want to explore this wide space to see what it has to offer.
In a real game, this would be a great opportunity for some combat from a privileged location, exploring for resources, and a bit of narrative development as we see there is something violent that happened in this area.
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In this area I tried to utilize some techniques to give the player some guidance:
1. Shape & Color - The storage unit doors are repetitive in shape and have a strong saturated yellow color. The destroyed doors and blood pooling break up the pattern, which hopefully makes the player stare at that location longer than normal. Ideally that grabs the player's attention and potentially makes them want to start there when exploring.
2. Composition - I tried to place objects at angles and orientations that lean to the right of the space. In a way, I'm subtly pushing the player in that direction but still giving them the freedom to run around and explore on their own. I also used bigger objects to block some sight lines just to give the illusion that the space is much bigger than it seems.
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As for the gameplay mechanic, doing another lift puzzle would have been predictable so I changed it up a bit. This time, you could drive a vehicle. I figured a forklift was appropriate for this type of setting and created a puzzle where the forklift was the means of finding the keycard.
At this point (in a real game) I'd imagined that the player had gone through some stress trying to figure out a puzzle, potentially engage in combat, and had gone through some scary moments chasing the path of an unknown creature. The next space had the following goals:
1. Act as a low energy moment where the player would potentially receive narrative exposition.
2. Explore freely with no pressure for resources.
3. Wrap around to a familiar hallway to set them back on the main path.
I kept the space free of any violent encounters, and tried to make the overall space bright and inviting. Unfortunately this space didn't get much time to be fleshed out due to time constraints, but I would've loved to add more calming elements like:
1. Greenery
2. Human elements that showed the space had just recently been used
3. Warmer lobby/foyer lighting
The lab reveal is where I felt the peak of the level should be due to its sudden shift in environmental tone and theme. The capsule that housed this mysterious creature was the focal point of the level, so I focused on keeping the capsule in frame and the "vehicle" that the player would use in this level somewhere on the top left third of the screen.
As the player walks around the space, they'll also notice:
1. The debris built up like a makeshift bridge that leads diagonally up to an opened door.
2. The broken stairs that lead to a blocked door.
3. The crane operations control panel above the radioactive capsule.​
The lab area went through a lot of iteration due to its footprint, themes, and gameplay hook. It also took more effort to make sense of it as it was residing within a warehouse. I started out with the idea that there was a main building and a secondary building. I would then fill in the gaps with catwalks and platforms, but then I transitioned into converting all of those catwalks into structures. I felt this made it easier to mentally map the layout of the lab and it also gave me more opportunities to provide the player with exploration and extended navigation.​
Again I felt that I had to "one up" the previous vehicle so that the level didn't feel predictable. This time around the player is operating a magnetic crane that is used to move giant radioactive capsules. The player would then have to place these capsules to create a pseudo bridge that gets them from the broken staircase to the debris on top of the radioactive pool.
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The second area would be an evolution of this puzzle where the player would work with a horizontal capsule and a forklift to build the bridge. In early testing it wasn't clear that the player could use the horizontal piece, so I ended up creating a scenario where the player is forced to move it. In the final setup, the horizontal capsule is blocking the exit of the building which prompts the player to use the crane to move it out of the way (and ideally also using it to build a bridge if they're keen to the puzzle).
At the very end when the player finally gets out of the lab, they are greeted with a reminder of their end goal and the means to get there. I thought it'd be cool to go out in style and let the player drive a real vehicle as they leave the compound. At this point, the driving sequence could become an interactive beat where the player is being fed narrative exposition as they're driving. Or a unique sequence could happen where an explosion happens at the building, making the matter of reaching the building more urgent.
I learned quite a lot from the experience of creating something from scratch. Working within constraints, knowing your own strengths and where you need to grow, and applying those lessons are some things that come to mind as I'm wrapping up this project. I do plan on continuing to do these personal growth projects because I feel that I still have a lot more to learn.