My Role
My role in the development was that of Level Designer. I was asked to design layouts for levels and puzzles that utilized more advanced combinations of mechanics, optional areas, and spaces that had been built but needed to be refined further. I also participated in weekly meetings with the art team to assist in creating a defined look for each of our levels.
One of the very first levels I worked on was Treetops in Hermit Hill. While I am still working on larger projects in this game I wanted to highlight my design process by showing the work I did in Treetops.
Role: Level Designer
Engine: Unity
Team Size: ~50 Developers
Platform: PC
Game Summary
High Concept: An atmospheric horror 3D platformer about a wax boy with a lantern for a heart, journeying through a dark, ruined world.
My references mostly focus on establishing a visual vibe for me to start playing with like a game in my head
Reference Gathering
To begin designing the space I was instructed I took to gathering some references. The location needed an incredibly steep ascent in a short amount of gameplay to reach an important story location.
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I thought of some locations where I had to climb a lot of height very quickly which is where I pulled in my references to Wind Waker and Kingdom Hearts. I knew it was possible to make those kinds of ascents fun but there were story or gameplay mechanics working with them to make them interesting. I knew I was going to need to leverage the mechanics we had to play with somehow to achieve a similar result.
I also pulled in Mario Sunshine since I distinctly remember this tricky platforming segment beneath a village, and being the end of a large part of the level I wanted to keep that kind of platfoming tension in mind in my design.
Design
My first run at a layout I went fully in trying to make the platforming up a large tree something fun and any difficulty to come from tricky landings. I blocked it out and after playing it in front of the team, they recommended I make some changes. My lead instructed me to consider how I might use the construction of a static space, like a tree, to create a puzzle for players to overcome instead of only leaning into dexterity of players.
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In my second iteration, I came up with this idea to create a series of walkable branches that had diverging paths, so the player would need to look ahead and plan out the best route forward rather than just trusting a "main path" but also kept a little platforming to give a good balance of cognitive load.
Original design. Leveraged more raw platforming, than any puzzles. After showing it off with a rough blockout, I went back to the drawing board to try and create a more cerebral gameplay experience.
Updated design. I created opportunities for some puzzle design while keeping some platforming goodness.
Original design. Leveraged more raw platforming, than any puzzles. After showing it off with a rough blockout, I went back to the drawing board to try and create a more cerebral gameplay experience.
The team had me draw up some vectors of my designs before I jumped into the engine. Usually I just draw out some sketches before prototyping ideas as soon as I can.
Enemies were added in this section instead of looping tree branches, to add a little tension but also give players a clear pathway by showing them where not to go.
In my design this was originally some mushrooms the player would jump around, but I replaced it with a long jump to try and expand upon a mechanic and give players a place to think laterally about how to reach the next branch.
These branches have had several iterations, originally I wanted players to jump from one branch to another to find a path forward. Now it's a little simpler, but I've added alternative ways forward with a little side path for players who might want to challenge themselves and bypass the entry way quicker.
Enemies were added in this section instead of looping tree branches, to add a little tension but also give players a clear pathway by showing them where not to go.
I really wanted to give players a chance to look out over the whole forest and see something that, while arduous, would be beautiful from a different perspective.
With such a steep incline up I wanted the tree the player scales to feel foreboding, looming in the fog, but also give them a bit of hope with the lights in the darkness.
The conveyance lights also had the added benefit of adding some nice ambience in the fog.
I really wanted to give players a chance to look out over the whole forest and see something that, while arduous, would be beautiful from a different perspective.
Some images of the blockout in engine and how it looks in game after an aesthetics pass
Blockout
I wanted to start blocking out the space as soon as I could. I had a lot of ideas of the space, but wasn't sure how they'd perform in engine. Sure enough, as soon as I had my first blockout in engine at least half of the design had to be adjusted.
Over the course of 3 more iterations, I adjusted platforming sections to add some enemies to create a pathway for players to follow rather than just jumping on branches, Rather than just platfoming over mushrooms, I added a long jump which expanded upon a mechanic from a previous level we hadn't found a good place for, and finally I created a vista for the final stretch to give players a chance to enjoy their victory over the forest and look out over the trees and enjoy the view.