LEVEL DESIGNER

ABOUT

Description

A Ninja sneaks into a highly-fortified Military facility. It is your job to guide him through the perilous dangers that await inside and recover the treasure hidden in the secret vault!

Genre

3D Stealth - Action

Year

2020

Developer

Role Description

Designed the main level layout including all 3 challenge areas using the Unity 3D Engine with Unity-made prefabs and free online assets that were gathered.

Also in charge of designing the AI Patrol Patterns of the enemies in the game.

GALLERY

Outside Port Section with flying patrolling obstacles
Final Treasure Room
2nd Floor Hallway - Laser Maze
Outside Maze Section with patrolling guard robot enemies

METHODOLOGY

HEIST was completed in the span of one month. I was in charge of the level and its placement of obstacles that were created by our programmer.

Originally, the game was going to feature 3 levels, each with scaling difficulty as the player progressed through them.

However, the levels were cut because they were too open and did not provide the adequate amount of challenge required. Eventually, the decision was made to just have 1 level that had all of the previous mechanics from the scrapped levels integrated into it.

When starting the main level, I had in mind that I wanted to display all of the game’s mechanics in said level, and we had around 3. So I split the game area into 3 distinct areas, each with a terminal to activate to open the big door in the foyer of the castle.

I started out by using a grid program to map out the areas and decided to reuse locations that were used in the scrapped levels. For example, one of the scrapped levels featured a port and hedge maze. I wanted to keep those elements, so 2 of the sections were made into a port and a hedge maze, while the 3rd area was made completely original. These 2 areas were dedicated to the patrol mechanics of the game, with the thematic being that the hedge maze was filled with guards and the port was filled with spotlights. The 3rd area was dedicated to a laser system that the player had to maneuver around.

I then started my blockout while the gameplay programming team focused on finalizing the mechanics. I let myself experiment with the level design, trying a lot of ideas with how to design the patrol paths for the enemies and the placement of obstacles. One area I was particularly proud of was the laser maze on the 2nd floor, which tested the player’s wayfinding skills. Once everything was done, the blockout level looked like this:

After finishing the blockout, the gameplay programmers finished most of what they wanted to implement, giving me the go-ahead to finish the rest of the level. As such, the lighting was changed to nighttime, and I added textures and extraneous models that were found to populate and decorate the palace. Background details, such as far-off buildings in the mountains surrounding the castle, were added, and the watchtower’s lighting was made functional.

Finally, the level was finished, and it ended up looking like this:

Overall, I wanted to add more details to the level and polish it a bit more, but we were pressed for time. What I would do differently is try to make the level feel more interconnected or maybe add some extra rooms for the player to explore. One idea is to make add collectables in the 3 sections for the player to have incentive to explore the section rather than heading straight to the goal.