Trailer
Type: Team Project
Software Used: Unreal Engine 5.4, Adobe Illustrator
This project is a level I'm making for an in-development platform game called Dillo's Dilemma. Dillo’s Dilemma is a platforming game starring an Armadillo named Dillo. In Dillo’s Dilemma, the player uses unique rolling movement and pinball-like structures to rescue fireflies from within the fortresses of rats who have invaded the woods. Once Dillo enters a fort, the rats will attempt to latch on and overwhelm him. With enough speed, he can smash through the rats and disperse them- thus, the challenge of the game is placing the pinball-like implements wisely to carve a path for Dillo to maintain high speed while navigating the fort. In between forts, Dillo explores large, open overworlds filled with secrets and collectibles.
I was asked to use a farm theme for this level, so naturally there are barns, silos, and most everything you'd find on a wheat farm.
Early Walkthrough
Start Video at 20:56 for Gameplay
Summary
Dillo’s Dilemma takes place in an unnamed, wooded area with sentient and civilized woodland creatures. Dillo is an engineer hailing from the Armadillo Village. Energetic, optimistic, intelligent, hardworking, but naive, Dillo has plans to revolutionize armadillo locomotion and make life easier for his community. Lacking the funds to do so himself, he accepts a research grant from the Rat King, the leader of the nearby Rat Kingdom. The Rat King agrees to fund Dillo’s research with a selfish and secret ulterior motive - to use Dillo’s locomotion machines to build a giant pinball machine for his own personal use...
Dillo Begins his adventure within the Farmland, where the rats have taken occupation by building forts throughout the land to maintain their dominance. Dillo must navigate the Farmland and tackle these forts, using the rats own architecture against them, to save his firefly friends. By using BLINKOs (Ball Launching Infrastructure for Navigating Key Objectives), which Dillo created for the Rat King, he must be able to avoid the occupant rats and succeed in saving the day!
Intentions
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Showcase Layout, Platformer-esque Design skills
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Create spaces that facilitate a desire to explore and take advantage of rolling
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Utilize our Pinball pieces to help enhance the speed and rolling gameplay
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Tell a story through gameplay and environment
Constraints
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Unreal Engine 5
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Staying within the Art Style Guide for the rest of the game
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Using assets from specific Asset Packs
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Platformer genre: Appropriate framework to facilitate gameplay in this genre.
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10-15 minutes of gameplay
Layout
(Early Version)
Quest Overview
Step 1:
Start at entrance and begin to go through tutorial area
Step 2:
Run through tutorial area, encountering obstacles and BLINKOS
Step 3:
Encounter the first tutorial fort and save the fireflies!
Step 4:
Navigate through the 1st farm and reach the main road to get behind the barricade.
Step 5:
Explore the second farm and make your way down the Bumper Field, leading on to the 2nd fort.
Step 6:
Encounter the 2nd fort and save the fireflies!
Step 7:
Climb the hilltop to the Lookout point, where you can use your newfound Spring BLINKO to cross the river
To be continued...
Level Design Techniques
Leading Lines/Conveyance
In the first tutorial area, I wanted to create leading lines utilizing the pieces of broken fence to show the correct path to the player. The gap in the fence where the pieces were, also uses some conveyance to really bring home the idea to the player.
