FIEA Level Dev Blog

In RPP 4, we’re making a story game. In my group’s game, the story is played through the perspective of a dog searching for his owner at night. I used this project to get more experience with landscape sculpting and planning guided path for the player to follow. Using the terrain painter made it easy to iterate on the path and sculpt the surrounding landscape. To guide the player, I used dense trees and other foliage as natural barriers, marking where they shouldn't go, and added colliders as a failsafe to keep the player on track. I also placed a mountain as a weenie. I also practiced sealing off parts of the level as the player progresses, ensuring they keep moving forward without backtracking.

During Hurricane Milton, I was lucky not to lose power and used the time to work on the real-world blockout. I decided to block out my apartment layout at UnionWest in Maya, which I want to use to practice proxy modeling and importing to Unreal. One of the main challenges I faced was balancing a 1:1 scale in engine with the player character's height. Certain areas, especially hallways, became tight and difficult for the camera to navigate. I initially used a third person controller but switched to first person due to how cramped everything felt when it was to scale. This exercise made me realize that in games, a lot of spaces need to be scaled up to make them playable.

This week, I spent more time developing the Operation Retrieve level design document. The level is a shooter set in a lab, where the player’s objective is to infiltrate and retrieve a virus. I’ve incorporated an option for stealth, creating both a main path and a stealth path. While certain sections of the level may favor one approach over the other, the player ultimately has the freedom to choose their preferred playstyle. To guide the player along the main path, I’ve been focusing on using leading lines. My goal is to keep the level as linear as possible while supporting these different gameplay styles. I’ll continue refining this project until it becomes a solid portfolio piece.

This past week we finished and presented our RPP 2 game. Our team's game Belly Beat is a rhythm game where you play as a mortician drumming to the notes of songs on the bellies of bodies in their lab. As dark as that sounds, we managed to keep it lighthearted and amusing. The level itself was just a small morgue and a small office room, but what I enjoyed most about working on this project was the set dressing. People usually say level design is most similar to architecture, but I find that some spaces feel more like doing interior design, maybe because I have a strong interest in both interior and industrial design. I enjoy set dressing because it’s all about the details. If this character were a real person, how would they interact with their space? How would they lay it out? What would they have and in what orientation to make things efficient for them? I don't think things should just be thrown together for the sake of moving a plot along or for mere player convenience. I...

This week I mostly worked on RPP 2, where we started bringing assets into the level I blocked out. One important lesson I learned while working on this project is the value of providing a comprehensive asset list of what will likely end up in the level. It’s also crucial to give artists a reference board and not leave them guessing. What we ended up with worked, but it could’ve made the process smoother, and in the future, this can prevent the artists from hating me.

  I followed along to the videos Nick recorded and made this hammer in ZBrush. I don't think I would want to use ZModeler again if I could help it but found still found it helpful.

Made my first head in ZBrush mostly by following along to the video and coming back to it later and adding hair.