Team
6 Programmers
3 Animators
4 Graphical Artists
3 Technical Artists
4 Level Designers
2 Sound Designers
Specification
Production Time
10 weeks half-time
2 weeks Pre-Prod half-time
Engine
Unreal Engine
Lamp Engine (Custom TGA Engine)
My Contributions
- Designing Level 1
- Taskforce Contributions: Combat & Audio
Level Top-Down
Blockout V.2
Whitebox
I wanted to incorporate a “loop” in the level where you either walk under or over a previously traversed area. The idea of a bridge that you walk over and then under seemed perfect as it not only filled that purpose, but allowed me to foreshadow the level’s end goal in a cinematic manner whilst also acting as a break in the gameplay tempo.
Reflections
Designing an introductory level for a combat heavy game was certainly an interesting challenge. Having to introduce mechanics in a clear and fair fashion, without losing the player’s engagement, took a while to figure out.
I also wanted to incorporate slower paced sections, like the viewpoint on the bridge, to break up the tempo and not cause the player too much fatigue, considering this is also the first level in the game.
In the end, I believe I managed to create a serviceable first level that introduces the player to the game’s mechanics and features in a solid way. I’m very happy with the results and would’ve loved to work on it further!
What would I have done different now?
Had I gone back to do this project all over again I would’ve started the blockout process and tested the various pipelines a lot sooner. While I’m happy I spent a lot of time in the idea and top-down stage, I believe that for a game where the combat is of major importance, my level could’ve benefitted from having reached the polish stage earlier so that I could have spent more time fine tuning the various combat spaces.
Showreel
Screenshots of my work from the project!
