THIRD PERSON EXPERIENCE
Full playthrough without commentary
About my level
Goals
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Developed over 6 weeks half-time
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Focus on creating an immersive, gameplay driven,
Third-Person puzzle experience. -
Made by using Unreal Engine 5.2 and Blender
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Scripting
- Gameplay Events
- Player features
- Puzzle interactions
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All content was created by me, with the exception of the following assets:
- Quixel Bridge materials: Bright desert sand & Stonewall
- Animations from Mixamo
- Blockout Tools Plugin v1.52
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Guiding the player through spatial communication
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Create a polished experience with different settings using lighting and forms
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Design challenging puzzles with simple solutions
Summary
Somewhere in time and space, a droid awakens and finds themselves in the midst of the desert. On a mission to reach their ship, they journey through the crumbling temple uncovering it's long forgotten secrets.
Flowchart
1. Arrival
2. Vista at bridge
3. Introduction puzzle
4. Entrance discoverd
5. Obstacle
6. Discover tomb puzzle
7. Solving tomb
9. Escape
8. A way out
Top Down
End
Start
Tension Graph
Introduction
Bridge
Escape
I planned this project to follow the 3-act structure, both in terms of narrative progression and tension buildup. This approach offers players a more familiar experience, using storytelling elements to enhance engagement and resonance.
Tension drops in order to avoid player fatigue.
Entrance
Obstacle
Solution
A way out
Design Techniques
Subverting expectation
In this area, I use the ship as a long term goal and in this case as a red herring to bait and trick the player out on the collapsed bridge. Once the player has reached the end of the bridge, realizing there is no path forward and turns around. Now the player is presented with a new path and is rewarded with a sense of progression.
Composition
I focused on creating an environment that guides and engages players without explicitly telling them what to do. By utilizing lighting, leading lines, and other environmental cues I guide players along the desired path. Furthermore, the level begins with an establishing shot to give the player a clear objective. I designed the environment around the landmark to create several vistas.
hover for composition
Visual language
It was essential to introduce the puzzles from a vantage point as it allowed the player to get an overview and start thinking about the solution.
To make the puzzles start and end points clear
I made their color match to establish a visual language that's consistent throughout the level. When the player approaches the starting points it activates and emits light, I did this to ignite the player's curiosity and attention.
Establishing goal
I wanted to foreshadow the end section of the level by framing the end goal with the desert geometry. I chose to have several vistas highlighting this to establish a landmark that helps them create a mental map. This gives the player a sense of progression in the world and reminds the player of their end goal.
The reveal
To get the most out of the catacomb reveal I wanted the path towards it to be cramped.
Using the open and cramped spaces to amplify contrast to the gameplay beats. This is a simple but effective way to affect how the player experiences the different areas.
Workflow breakdown
Gathering references
The first thing I always start with when creating a level is collecting a large amount of references.
I tend to take most of my inspiration from games that have a similar theme to what I'm working on. However, using real images of environments and architecture speeds up the process of nailing down the metrics which in turn leads to more believable spaces
The level drew inspiration from references and served as an architectural guideline to ensure the space felt realistic and believable.
Prototyping
I created a player gym early on where I could test metrics and create quick proof of concept ideas for the puzzle features. Before including them in the level prototype I created pen & paper sketches to help visualize them.
The moveable artifact and tripod beams drew inspiration from: The Legend Of Zelda Link's Awakening and The Talos Principle 2.
I wanted puzzles with clear constrictions and goals. The idea for it was to create challenging puzzles with simple solutions once you figured out the answer.
During playtesting I realized that not every puzzle should be hard to complete. So I iterated on the early puzzles difficulty. Making them easier didn't only make the player feel smart, but it built up assumptions that the puzzles later subverted by challenging them.
I created the sandboard to translate the traversing feeling of freedom and openness at the start of the level, which contrasts the rest of the experience with its narrow and limited space.
I originally wanted the sand gliding to be reactive and responsive to the inclination of the surface, but had to scrap that due to the time constraint.
Blockout
With the references gathered and the prototyping done I started blocking out the core areas. Having all my geamplay features ready during the blockout made it possible to playtest my puzzles throughout the process. Many of my fellow designers helped pinpoint areas requiring improvements.
This level was built using only the blockout tools plugin
To quickly get a feel for the outdoors I sculpted
three rocks in blender. A process done in minutes that resulted in building blocks for the majority of the terrain for the level.
Fun fact:
Environmental storytelling
The level evolves with the player's progress, each step revealing more about the story and increasing the tension through more destructiveness and earth shakes. This was to make the small spaces feel claustrophobic and create the feeling that the temple could collapse at any moment. This progressively builds up the expectation which is then delivered during the end climax.
Polishing
My polishing for this project included fine-tuning the lighting since it's a powerful tool to catch the player's attention. I used this throughout the level to give each space visual depth and to set different moods. At the same time I changed all the textures from the blockout tools to highlight environmental details to create a more immersive and appealing environment.
Lastly adjusting gameplay elements such as puzzles and interactive objects to ensure balanced difficulty.
Timelapses taken during blockout to polishing
Reflections
During this project I've stumbled and conquered, but most importantly I've learned a lot. I got to know myself as a level designer and found out where my strengths lie. Designing from a third-person perspective has been enjoyable and interesting to combine with puzzle design.
So if I could do it again I would downscale the polish of the level to set aside more time for iterating and testing. Creative work is a process that requires multiple revisions, and perfection is rarely achieved on the first attempt. Over the past few months I've had the pleasure of connecting with exceptionally talented individuals, I recognize now that I was not asking for enough feedback from all of these people. I didn't feel that the project was polished or good enough for feedback at the time, but recognize now that this state of the project is the perfect and most crucial time to ask for it.
At the end of the day, this project really improved my blockout skills and I'm fairly satisfied with the result.
I've grown a lot and I'm looking forward to tackle future challenges.