GAME DESIGNER & LEVEL DESIGNER
ADVENTURE RPG PROJECT
Technical Level Design Set In A Top-Down RPG
Focus Areas: Game Design, Level Design & System Design
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Production time:
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13 weeks half-speed = Around 260 hours.
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7 weeks half-speed during our advanced script course
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6 weeks half-speed during our specialization course
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Engine:
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Unreal Engine 4
My goal of this project:
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Design and script mechanics that works in tandem with each other and within the world
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Level design an area that fits the adventure genre
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Design a level that showcases my game design and system design
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Create a satisfying gameloop
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Add variety in traversal and combat
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Find a balance between game-, system-, and level design
OVERVIEWS
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INITIAL DESIGN
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The initial idea I had for this project was a hub only accessible by boat to clearly separate it from the other areas. Two other areas were planned to complement the hub, one for gathering resources and one mainly focused on combat as well as two separate boats to each of them.
The boat to the combat area needs to be unlocked during the game, the idea being that once you get to that stage, it would work as a shortcut instead of having to go through the exploration area first.
CAMERA PERSPECTIVE
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As I was working with a top-down, knowing how much is on screen at any one time seemed quite important.
Keeping this in mind I placed some cubes in the world at an early stage which would mark the borders of the screen while in-game.
Using these as an estimate, I could use it as a guide while level designing; knowing what would and wouldn't be on screen while playing.
RE-DESIGN
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I wasn't quite happy with the flow of the level but decided to keep the hub as it was and then completely re-design the other areas. I wanted to portay a plagued landscape to match the zombies you eventually fight so that it would be more clear when you transition from exploration to combat area.
The clear color change for the combat area also came with the benefit of a stark contrast to the safer regions as well as the general feel of your surroundings.
It was also here I thought of having skill gates throughout the level that needed to be unlocked by the player incrementally upgrading their homebase as well as crafting the required items.
By doing this I also managed to tie the gameplay features I had developed into the world more neatly, combining game design and level design tighter together.
FIRE WAND ATTACKS
The Firewand is one of three craftable weapons available to you once you have unlocked your crafting table and gathered enough resources.
It can cast a low mana cost single-target attack as well as a higher mana cost Area Of Effect.
The Area Of Effect can both be used against enemies as well as burning down barricades placed in the world, which need to be done in order to advance.
FROST WAND ATTACKS
The Frostwand is one of three craftable weapons available to you once you have unlocked your crafting table and gathered enough resources.
It can cast a low mana cost single-target attack as well as a higher mana cost Area Of Effect.
The Area Of Effect can both be used against enemies as well as freezing a pond in the center of the level, which need to be done in order to advance.
LIGHTNING WAND ATTACKS
The Lightning wand is one of three craftable weapons available to you once you have unlocked your crafting table and gathered enough resources.
It can cast a low mana cost single-target attack as well as a higher mana cost Area Of Effect.
The Area Of Effect can both be used against enemies as well as activating runes throughout the level, bringing life back into the plagued terrain.
PLAYER RESOURCES & UI
Your health does not replenish itself but your mana does replenish quite slowly. It is for this reason that potions are a boon when adventuring.
You can craft potions for both health and mana, aiding you in combat. Opening your inventory also pauses the game.
Your stamina drains quite fast when sprinting but replenishes at a moderate pace, useful when traversing the world.
RESOURCE GATHERING
Within the world lies a variety of resources that can be gathered which can then be used for crafting other items.
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Trees and rock nodes drop a random amount of wood and stone, needed for upgrading your homebase. The rock nodes also have a chance to drop elemental shards; which are used to create wands/potions.
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Two different types of plants can be harvested and replanted and are used when crafting potions.
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Zombies have a chance to drop soul shards, which can replace elemental shards when making wands/potions.
HUB, UPGRADES & TRAVERSAL
At your hub is where the game starts and the only two things you can do at that point is harvest a plant, replant it and then take the boat from your dockarea out into the wider world.
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Your home can be upgraded which will give you both a crafting table, and later, a cow that can be milked for resources.
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The dockarea, when upgraded, expands the size of your hub as well as give you access to a second boat that will take you to a different area in the world.
DAY / NIGHT CYCLE & ENEMY ZOMBIES
This is just a quick showcase of the day / night cycle and enemy zombies that I have implemented in this project, as well as tying the zombies to that cycle for respawning.
The zombies chase you if you are within range and they deal damage to you if they manage to get up close.
Once the zombies have been killed, a bool is flipped at dawn, enabling their respawn. When dusk later arrives, the bool is checked and if true, they respawn.
PROJECT SHOWREEL
Feel free to scroll through the images to view some selected screenshots of my top-down project.
PROJECT SUMMARY
This project has been my favorite so far, as it gave me the chance to delve deeper into scripting and creating an interconnected system that works in tandem with each other.
It gave me the opportunity to create a game on my own, with my own goals and holistic mindset to guide me.
I would however have liked to spend more time with it, as I still had some things I wanted to implement, such as different effects from your wandattacks on enemies (the frostwand being able to slow enemies for example).
I also wanted to have made a definitive end goal of the experience, something that is lacking at the moment. I suppose that I spent too much focusing on interesting game mechanics and designing systems that I forgot about what the game objective was supposed to be in the end.
A lesson well learned for the future.