OVERVIEW:
Quest For Valor was a Level Design Assignment at VFS where students were given a project, and had to design an original level from start to finish. This was worked on for the duration of 2 months, starting from paper plans and ending with a complete and polished level with combat, platforming and puzzles and ending with a boss fight.
For my level the main protagonist, Juno, had to venture into the underground lair of a Necromancer to rid the world of his evil. The level spiraled lower and lower until Juno came face to face with her nemesis, defeating him and crushing his head under a giant skull.
My level was selected to be shown as an example to future classes
Quest For Valor was a Level Design Assignment at VFS where students were given a project, and had to design an original level from start to finish. This was worked on for the duration of 2 months, starting from paper plans and ending with a complete and polished level with combat, platforming and puzzles and ending with a boss fight.
For my level the main protagonist, Juno, had to venture into the underground lair of a Necromancer to rid the world of his evil. The level spiraled lower and lower until Juno came face to face with her nemesis, defeating him and crushing his head under a giant skull.
My level was selected to be shown as an example to future classes
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ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Level Designer
Gameplay Scripter
Level Designer
- Designed the level layout and defined the progression using pen and paper.
- Whiteboxed, Implemented and iterated over the layout in Unreal Engine.
- Polished the level by texturing, lighting and set dressing it.
- Added gameplay elements to the level and balanced the difficulty curve.
Gameplay Scripter
- Scripted gameplay logic including but not limited to checkpoints, moving platforms, and enemy spawning.
- Scripted the final boss fight, who would reanimate his minions if they were killed before him.
- Scripted the intro, outro, and boss introduction cinematics in Sequencer.
SOFTWARE USED:
- Unreal Engine 4
- Adobe Photoshop
DESIGN THOUGHTS AND LEARNINGS:
Level Flow In An Underground Necromancer Lair
- One of the things I wanted to do with the level as it progressed was to make it feel more foreboding to the player. For this purpose, not only did the challenges get harder, but the environment and surroundings became more intimidating as the player spiraled down to their final showdown. I did this by offsetting the pristine and grandiose nature of the level geometry with broken and degraded elements to make the players feel awe as well as fear. This was emphasized using lighting to highlight such objects and elements.
- Lighting was also used to bring life to the atmosphere, allowing the player to see themselves progressing through the level. This was done by dynamically changing the light from a poisonous green effect to a warm red effect every time the player passed by a checkpoint giving them a sense of safety within the dangerous dungeon they were traversing through.