Screenshots

My Roles

Level Design

I was responsible for the final section of the level, so clear communication between the Level Designers was essential to maintain consistent pacing and difficulty throughout the game. I also playtested the other Level Designers' sections and provided feedback and suggestions to help improve them.

Top View

Level Timeline

Blockout production

Optimisation

At the pre-production, I was responsible for designing the level timeline and its macro progression:

• I started by identifying the typical locations that could be found in a village, matching the storytelling: forest, village entrance, cemetery, church...

• For each location, I assigned a gameplay situation: tutorial, pause, combat sequence, arena, and platforming. I then arranged them to create a balance of intensity and variety.

• We were tasked with creating a project featuring 10 minutes of gameplay, so I estimated the approximate duration of each gameplay section.

• Since we had many mechanics and enemies to introduce, I had to strategically plan the timing and order of each tutorial.

• In collaboration with the narrative designers, I placed narrative elements throughout the level at appropriate intervals, ensuring a good balance of gameplay and storytelling.

• Level optimization by removing unnecessary mesh collisions.

• Placement of invisible walls to reduce the number of complex meshes and prevent the player from leaving the level.

• Identification and resolution of softlock areas by removing or blocking collisions.

• Overall FPS improvement through optimization, stabilizing the game at 60fps.

Comment: If we had had more production time, we would have replaced the invisible walls with more affordant and visually clear elements to communicate to the player that these areas were inaccessible.

Level Design Techniques

• 1) During playtests, players would accidentally fall because they did not understand the boundary of the gap. To prevent this, I placed an invisible block slightly beyond the edge of the gap.

• 2) Added a lighting effect to create stronger contrast and make the depth of the gap more visible.

• 3) Placed destructible barrels to guide the player toward the direction of the dash.

• 4) Placed a soul spawner that grants the player the jump ability while also indicating the direction to follow.

• 5) The gate contrasts with the lighting of the gap, indicating that the player should jump rather than dash.

• 1) Paper design of the gameplay situations in Figma, following the locations defined in the Timeline.

• 2) Blockout and iterations of the situations in Unreal Engine, following the 3C metrics.

• 3) Creation of enemy waves for the arenas using the tools made by programmers.

• 4) Placement of trigger zones (camera, barks, arena), narrative objects, and destructible objects (barrels).

• 5) Organization of level playtest sessions for volunteers. I documented their feedback and implemented the relevant changes.

• 6) Collaboration and communication with Environment Artists, pointing out areas that needed changes to improve the game's readability, guidance, and storytelling.

• 7) Level optimization and correction of softlocks (see below).

Comment: There were quite a lot of Level Designers on the level compared to its overall size. If I had the opportunity, I would have liked to work on more individual level design blockout to further develop my skills.

We were 3 Level Designers working on the project. I was responsible for designing and blocking out one third of the game. I created 1 platforming situation, 1 combat arena, and 2 pauses situation, including 1 with a narrative element.

Watch the platformer sequence

Watch the arena sequence

Steps of production:

Collaboration with Level Designers:

• 1) I created all the enemy waves using the EnemySpawner tool, which I requested from the programmers.

• 2) Four spawners placed in each corner ensure a dynamic combat experience, with enemies surrounding the player.

• 3) The destructible barrels in the middle of the arena create a changing battlefield as the fight progresses.

• 4) Two small islands only spawn shooter enemies. The player is forced to dash or jump to reach and kill them.

• 5) The barrels scattered throughout the arena can be destroyed by either the player or enemies during combat, making the fight feel more natural and dynamic.

• 1) A narrative item is placed at the highground and emits light to attract the player's attention.

• 2) The player has to climb on the slope to reach the narrative item.

• 3) The destructible barrels in a corner hides a soul that grants the player the ability to jump, providing an alternative and faster way to reach the highground.

• 4) The character's camera is orthographic, so the character can hide when standing behind a wall. I therefore placed an invisible block to prevent the character from getting too close to the wall and ensure they remain visible to the player.

Platformer Situation:

Combat Arena:

Narrative Item:

Watch sequence

Watch sequence

Watch sequence

Game Design

My second major role was Game Design. We were 6 Game Designers working on the project, and everyone contributed to the game's overall design. I had the opportunity to work on:

• 3C Technical Design Document: Camera (settings, contextual camera); Character (locomotion, attacks, blocking); Controls.

• Combat Design Document: Character (attacks, blocking, special attack, 3 different Souls); Enemy Design (enemy popcorn, big enemy, 3 different Souls); Arena waves system.

• Game Concept Document: Pitch; 3C; Combat Design; Enemies; Boss Design; Narrative; Level Design; UI/UX.

Documentations

Combat Design

In the game, we had a popcorn enemy, a big enemy, and 3 types of Souls: Red, Blue, and Yellow. Both the player and enemies can absorb these Souls to inherit their abilities. The goal was to make each Soul correspond to a specific combat/gameplay style, requiring different player skills and creating greater variety during combat.

• Red Soul: Based on creating marks on the ground that deal damage again after a short delay. It encourages close-range combat and rewards good timing.

• Blue Soul: Based on projectiles fired through attacks, either in a straight line or in a shotgun spread. It encourages ranged combat and requires good distance management.

• Yellow Soul: Based on dashes that deal damage when passing through enemies. It encourages a dynamic combat style that requires dexterity and reflexes. 

The player and enemies share the same Soul abilities, which simplifies the player's understanding of the combat system and makes implementation easier for the programmers.

The game was developed over 8 weeks by a team of 6 Game Designers, 4 Gameplay Programmers, 9 Game Artists, 3 Programmers, and 2 Sound Designers, for a total of 24 people. I volunteered to take on one of the Producer roles to help the team with project organization and coordination.

• The backlog was organized in HacknPlan using tickets to track tasks.

• To properly organize deliverables and sprints, I created a Google Sheet containing the project schedule, deliverables, and deadlines.

• I organized weekly meetings between the different teams to review priorities and track the progress of each discipline.

Producing

Organization and planning

• Creation of a bug report list for the team, including guidelines and explanations of the reporting process.

• Identification of bugs and softlock in the game through various testing methods: Happy Path, Negative Testing, End-to-End Testing, and Boundary Testing.

• Documentation and detailed reporting of bugs in english, including the description, expected behavior, steps to reproduce, and reference images.

• Determination of bug priority based on type, gravity, impact, likehood, and presence.

Quality Assurance

Bug identification and report

Walkthrough

Credits

Ralif Tazutdinov

Home

raliftazut@gmail.com