WEEK 9&10: THE FINAL PROJECT
Welcome back friends!
We are now at the last week of the course Level Design For Games on CGMA.
It was quite a journey! I learned a ton and I had a lot of fun. After a bumpy year in the industry, it was fun to to make new games and be freshly creative each week. It really revived the little flame I had in me for this beautiful industry!
For the last 2 weeks of the course, we were working on our own project. The final assignment was free, so we could explore things that we didn't explore yet in the course.
The lectures were mostly about the industry and how to build a portfolio as a level designer. It was pretty fun, but I would have liked more content! 😭
ASSIGMENT
Here are the requirements for this week's level:
- There are no requirements! Juste make a level that you really want to make! Have fun, be creative and do this for 2 weeks.
Here's a little recap on things I wanted to improve or learn with this new assignment:
- Learn how to use sounds in areas
- Making better ennemies and interactions
- Learn how to use VFXs to help demonstrate my ideas
- Learn a bit about how to make some UI for my needs
There are a lot of things I want to learn! But a lot of ideas come along the way as I'm imagining what could be my gameplay.
LET'S DO THE WORK!
As we needed to work on a personal idea, I brought back a passion project of mine that has been in the back of my head since...8 years?!
I had this idea for a 3D side scroller game that would tell the story of a recently deceased viking Dad on a mission to get to Valhalla before his son. I will not go into full details as I would love to explore this idea further and refine it, but if you have been following my work since a bit, you are probably aware of my project called Berserk Ascension. I've been designing and redesigning this project often, and it's not the end of it! 😏
Anyhow, I decided this could be a great opportunity to explore this idea a bit in level design and see what I could make with it!
1. BRAINSTORM / MOODBOARD & INTENTIONS
My level moodboard, made in PureRef
In my idea for this game, there would be at least 9 levels, for the 9 realms of the Norse Mythology. For this assignment, I would concentrate on the beginning. This level would be what could be the realm of Niflheim.
WHO: Hermod. a dead warrior dad
WHEN: Viking Era (Fantasy)
WHERE: Helheim (Niflheim)
WHAT: Go to the Halls of Hell to make a deal with the Goddess
WHY: He needs to get to Valhalla before his son
HOW: Traversing Niflheim and defeating monsters (beat them all up!)
After some research, I decided I would integrate 3 interesting areas in my level:
1. Nastrond | The Corpse Shore
2. Hvergelmir | The Boiling Spring
3. The Halls of Hel
2. Making a Side-scroller
My first mission was to make a new character blueprint for my side-scroller. After many tutorials, I made something decent. The main issue is that I ended up using the Third person mannequin as a base and thus, I only had a jump. I didn't have the time to add more actions to the blueprint but I think this would have really helped my level! This is something I wont to learn more about in the future.
I had many problems making this camera work but in the end I got something decent! I also changed the model to something that would resemble Hermod.
3. BLOCKOUT AND GAME ELEMENTS
For this level, I made many different things, although I wish I had more skills and time to make a lot more! I'm still quite happy with the result, I think this is a good first pass on an idea!
My level is pretty long as you can run through it pretty fast! I added a little more verticality at the second part of the level.
I made some elements that could hurt you with a little visual feedback.
You can pickup speed boosts and bump into ennemies.
4. LET'S PLAY!
Time to play this level! 😊
Key Takeaways
All in all, it was pretty fun to do and I learned a ton of new things! It's not up to my expectations, but it's a good start. I definitely would like to work more on this project in the future and maybe play more games that feels a bit like what I would like to make to get more ideas on how to tackle some problems.
TO KEEP:
- Mood and look & feel have something cool! The more levels I do, the more I can see what is my "style" as a designer.
- Having changes of pace that are reflected in animations and camera was a good idea!
- Robot voices and SFX! They add some fun to it!
TO IMPROVE:
- The texts at the start and the end are going away too early. I'm a quick reader, but I realized it's not the case for everyone.
- Definitely add more possible interactions and player moves! Having only a jump was a limitation and I think the level could be way more fun if we had more things to do.
- Add more interaction from the character with the environment. I think the character right now feel too soulless.
TO LEARN:
- SO MANY THINGS!
- I think in futur levels I will try to have better interactions, think about what are macro and micro loops of gameplay that could take place in this environment so the player spend more time in this space.
- I also want to learn new way to prototype things, maybe dive deeper into animations and interactions.
I hope you guys have enjoyed following me through this journey! It was really fun and I don't think it is the end! 😊
The industry is a bit broken right now, it has been hard for everybody to find work and I feel that Concept Art was one of the area that was the most impacted by our new realities. I feel it's time for me to dive deeper into my love for games and why I wanted to be in this industry in the first place, and if it's not by being a Level Designer, than it is definitely in being a Game Developer and translating that to all of my work!
So for the future, I will try to make my portfolio more project based and integrate Level Design and prototyping into my work flow. I want to have fun and find my way into great experiences!
Again, I did a little video to talk about my creative process for this level. You can check it out on my YouTube chanel!
Thanks again!
See ya!
- Caro
