Description
A 3rd person fetch quest adventure experience with focus on level design and composition.
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A main path has been placed in order to guide the player forward, as well as NPC's in various places together with signposting. Dialogues have been created to ease the player into the adventures world building and to keep the player engaged throughout the experience.
About the level
For this piece, I wanted to create a cute and tiny adventure combined with fetch quests and light world building.
The focus of this piece is level design and composition.
The scripts and AI are there purely to enhance the experience and to bring forth the immersion.
Specifications
Credits
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4 weeks at half time
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Created using Unreal Engine 5
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Template created by me
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All mechanics created by me
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AI created by me
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All scripts and sequences created by me
Goals
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Create a tiny and cute adventure
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Focus on level design and composition
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Scripting and AI to enhance the experience
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Promote exploration
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Overview
You are an adventurer traveling through portals who stumble upon the magical floating islands that belongs to the Critters. Help them with their quests and they will help you in return!
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This piece is a rework of an assignment during my first year at The Game Assembly, floating islands. I decided to take an already existing project an build upon it because I wanted to have a head start on the ground work and give it a new breath of life.
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The reason why I chose to work with a stylized environment was because I thought it had an eye catching look and since the ground work was already there, I figured that the iteration of the reworked areas wouldn't take long. This saved me a lot of time for other things, such as creating a functional build, UI-elements, world building and the level design itself.
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The goal for this piece was to create interesting level design that will hook the player instantly. I feel like this was accomplished with how I have designed the different floating islands and how I point the player forward with leading lines and promoting exploration.
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Design techniques
10 second rule
Keeping the player stimulated and engaged constantly is something that this piece showcases all the time.
Whether it is something that the player sees or an obstacle in the way that the player has to navigate around, the 10 second rule is used a lot.
Ki-sho-ten-ketsu
I introduce the world to the player with an establishing shot, then develop the experience with quests to keep the player motivated.
The journey while doing the quests comes with a twist as the player needs to backtrack in order to fulfill the quests, but can choose to take an alternate shortcut.
The experience is the concluded with the player having helped the Critters and is now free to leave the floating islands.
Sightlines
While introducing the world to the player, I deliberately block the sight lines to not overwhelm the player with too much information.
When the exploration begins, more of the world is being revealed from another perspective to lead the player in the right direction.
When beginning this adventure, I block the hub to not overload the player with information.
Then, I reveal the cave entrance fully combined with a chance to see the hub for the first time.
Giving the player a glimpse of the entrance peaks the interest of what lies inside.
When beginning this adventure, I block the hub to not overload the player with information.
When introduced to the world, the players short term goal is to find out where they are. That is what the hub is for.
When proceeding with the long term goal, the player can choose to do side quests, which becomes the mid term goal.
The long term goal is to fix the crystal cave platforms and eventually leave Critter Island. The blue crystals scattered all over the world is a constant reminder about the long term goal.
When introduced to the world, the players short term goal is to find out where they are. That is what the hub is for.
Goals
This piece explores the different goals to keep the player motivated.
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Short term goal: Discovering the different parts of the world, like the hub.
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Mid term goal: Side quests that promote exploration.
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Long term goal: Fixing the platforms and leaving Critter Island.
Signposting
The blue crystals and the crystal cave is constantly being highlighted in this experience.
Blue crystals have been placed in several locations before the player reaches the crystal cave to point the player in the right direction.
This is purposely done to remind the player of the long term goal at all times.
This is the first crystals that the player will discover. They are used fairly often to guide the player in the right direction.
The trail of crystals contunes in the forest.
The last crystal that will wave the player goodbye as they leave Critter Island.
This is the first crystals that the player will discover. They are used fairly often to guide the player in the right direction.
Composition
Establishing shot
The player is being introduced to the world with an establishing shot, which becomes the short term goal; the hub. The establishing shot is being discovered early to imprint the short term goal as soon as possible.
Zones
Splitting up every island into distinct zones is a great way to let the player know which part of the world the player is currently in.
I have separated the world into four different main zones; the hub, the forest, the cave and the mountain fields.
Each zone represent a different connotation.
This is the first zone that the player roam around in. This zone connects the hub and the forest.
This is the second zone that the player roam around in. This is where the player will visit when accepting and finishing quests.
This is the last zone that the player roam around in. When the main quest is finished, the player gains access to this zone and is free to leave.
This is the first zone that the player roam around in. This zone connects the hub and the forest.
Process
This is one of the earliest pictures I have of the blockout of hub junction.
This is one of the earliest pictures I have of the blockout of hub.
Another view over the player start where I replaced all the blockout cubes with assets.
This is one of the earliest pictures I have of the blockout of hub junction.
Rework an assignment
I decided to take an already existing assignment of mine and rework it with a new story, a new goal, brushed up Critters and a new player character.
The reason why I chose to do this is because I wanted some sort of a head start with the ground work already in place.
Planning the rework
I took a screenshot of an old level to plan out what I wanted to do with this piece. I knew I wanted a forest island because of how much I can control the sight lines with it.
After that, I figured that a cave could bring out some depth and darkness, which serves as a form of funnel.
The new island was supposed to be a field island, but I decided against this since it might have turned out to flat compared to a mountain island.
This is the flowchart over the main quest; from start to end. The player doesn't have to complete all quests besides from this one to finish the game.
This is the flowchart of the yellow critters quest. This is an escort quest, which works as a rabbit hole for the player; takes the mind of the main quest for a while.
This is the flowchart of the red Critters quest. It is a delivery quest and takes place in the crystal cave.
This is the flowchart over the main quest; from start to end. The player doesn't have to complete all quests besides from this one to finish the game.
Flowchart
I created several flowcharts that serves as pillars for my creation. I figured that I would split my flowchart into four different ones because there are four different quests in Critter Island.
Setting inspiration
I feel like gathering references is crucial before jumping into blockout. Even before the rework of this piece, I wanted the experience to pop with lots of colors, to be cute and atmospheric.
This PureRef was made during the assignment, but I thought it would be fun to include in the process.
Blockout to final
I have included blockout pictures from early stages because it shows where I started this journey all together. As shown, there isn't much difference on the latest version of the assignment compared to the latest version of my final portfolio piece aside from smaller details being altered and the obvious reworks on the forest island and the cave island.
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The original story had to altered completely since I felt that it wouldn't be as serious as I wanted it to be. Sure, the end result can come across as goofy in some ways, but it is more suitable as a portfolio piece than two clans fighting over cereal first or milk first which was the story before my rework.
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The original idea was to create a field island as the last island, but I scrapped that to create a smaller mountain island to stick to my schedule.
Closing thoughts
What went well
I must say that it felt liberating to rework an old assignment into a portfolio piece. It sparked new ideas and opened up so many new doors for creativity.
Most of the ground work was already there, so all I had to do was to give it a new story, rework one of the islands and implement two new islands to keep it interesting. It also gave me time to build the project into an actual ".exe" which was a fun process.
Most of the scripts in this piece went pretty smooth to create as the base of the Critter already existed from the old assignment. All the other scripts that I created was just bonuses that adds to the final experience. I must say that it is one of my best works so far.
Take aways
Looking at Critter Island now that I'm finished with it, I definitely could have used some time to rework the other islands that were already there; create new and creative leading lines that points the player forwards in a different way, put in defining points of interest that ties together the different islands better, maybe work a little more with the story building to give the world a better depth, etc.
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With this said, I'm still happy with the outcome considering the time limit I had.