Ben's Level Designs
The Forest Temple
Trailer
Type: Personal Project
Software Used: Unreal Engine 5.4, Adobe Illustrator
Game Inspiration: God of War, Elden Ring
This project was my second assignment in my Master's program, and was supposed to be based on an Action-Adventure game of our choosing. The game I chose as inspiration for my level, was the 2018 reboot, God of War. I had trouble finding an asset pack that quite covered the action adventure functionality, while maintaining the God of War feel. So I ended up using a pack that had similar controls to Elden Ring, another game I love and spent many hours in.
I wanted to mimic a path you may take within God of War, while changing up the environment and pacing. I really wanted to keep both the bridge and the mountain in the player's view for most of the level, and have the player maneuver around these center pieces. The level has a few scripted events, like the Boulder rolling to kill the player, and the multiple chest puzzles; which requires the player to destroy several idols in order to open the chest.
The asset pack I referenced and used for this level was the Dynamic Combat System - Bundle. This pack was good for simulating close to mid-range combat, which is perfect for a modern God of War game. It was also advantageous to utilize some of the more advanced character scripting, and equipment system within it.
Walkthrough
Summary
Rumors of a legendary power has reached the ears of our Protagonist, and they are currently chasing those rumors. They’ve previously attained a map from a fortified armory, which leads to a Temple located in a vast wild forest. The Temple is well guarded and many precautions have been taken to guard this secret. Our protagonist needs to reach this Temple, potentially find this power, and escape while defeating any enemies along the way.
Intentions
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Showcase Scripting, Layout, "Combat Space" Design skills
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Create accurate spaces that mimic both God of War and Souls-like combat, while enabling fun, rewarding gameplay
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Script sequences that engage the player and create unique, memorable moments in the level
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Design "Easter Egg" puzzles, similar to ones found in God of War
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Practice close to mid-range combat layout design
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Tell a story through gameplay, environment, and scripted events
Constraints
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Unreal Engine 5
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Dynamic Combat System - Bundle (Character Controller, AI, and Equipment System)
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Action-Adventure/Puzzle genre: Appropriate framework to facilitate gameplay in this genre.
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5-10 minutes of gameplay
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Level must have a start, middle, end point and have a clear sense of progression
Layout
Quest Overview
Step 1:
Enter the Forest and navigate side paths leading to the Temple
Step 2
Enter Waterfall area and fight bandits along the way
Step 3
Progress to the Forest Clearing and combat more bandits, as well as find loot
Step 4
Follow up the Mountain Path and dodge the falling boulder, then fight the final bandits
Step 5
Sneak into the Temple, fight the guards, and retrieve the power (healing and fireball)
Step 6
Break through the magic locked door with newfound power, and trek back across the Bridge to defeat the final guards
Step 7
Lower the drawbridge to escape
Level Design Techniques
Visual Language - Color
Similar to God of War I wanted to have the "Easter egg" puzzles, where you find multiple idols, and must destroy them, to open the chests. Using visual language with color, I allow the player to make the connection of which idols belong to which chest. The color also conveys which weapon to eventually use to destroy each idol.
Denying Affordance/ Giving Affordance
As a general theme within games, it is common to block players with obstacles they can't destroy at that moment, thus denying affordance.
Later on, the player is given a new weapon or power, which then allows them to break through these aforementioned obstacles. Thus giving the player affordance, and allowing them to access new paths/areas.
I wanted to practice this in my own level, intentionally teasing areas to the player. Then when they receive the fireball power from the Temple, they're able to go back and access this area.
Leading Lines
I wanted to use a little more subtle usage of leading lines. The fallen statue already has the bottom half of its body acting as an arrow, pointing to the area to jump over. The crates are also arranged in a way that is almost forming an arrow, also leading the player to the correct way to progress.
Gates & Valves
I wanted to force the player into a different kind of combat for the Temple as compared to the first 2 main areas. Whereas the first 2 were open, and can support more ranged playstyles; I wanted to force the player to have a more close-ranged encounter.
To do this, I used a Valve where the player drops into the room preventing backtracking. As well as a Gate, where the player needs the fireball to open, to keep the player engaged in this close-combat fight.
Key Iterations
Opening Start
In a very early iteration of the player start, I was encouraged to use more curvy/imperfect paths, to give it a more natural feel. I also had trouble in this project, and my last one, with the general idea of a start of a level. I wrestled with the idea of this being the start of this level, while also thinking this could be connected to a previous level in some way. I was encouraged to lean into the narrative for this idea. "How did the player get here?" "Where did they come from?" "How can I prevent the player from going backwards?" These questions helped my perspective immensely, and I definitely feel better creating starts going forward.
Initial Design
Final Design
Temple
Entrance/Exit
The initial design of the player entering the Temple, was simply to walk through the front door, and then exit the Temple after retrieving the Power. After some playtesting, the feedback I received was that it felt unintuitive to turn around once in the Temple. To change this, I had the idea to have the player come in from the side, and still exit the front. I achieved this by making a camp where some bandits have already been trying to break in to the Temple as well. This also provides context for the boulder being pushed to the player, trying to kill them. This solution allowed me to better use the Gate/Valve system to lock the player in the Temple for a short fight.
Initial Design
Final Design
Image Gallery
Reference Board
Lesson's Learned
Key Takeaways:
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Landscape Material: Using certain landscape materials within the Landscape tool can have an unintended effect of stretching the materials. This causes the landscape to look very unnatural, and not pretty. Best to not do flat vertical faces of this tool (like certain cliffs on mountains).
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Player Funneling: I had a need for iteration on blocking the player into the main path. I learned that it requires some thought, for a player to not question the path they're following. It needs to feel natural, and not be in the player's face, while still leading the player along in a fun way.
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Avoiding Flatness: From the start when the LDD was formed, I was warned to not let the bridge be a long boring trek back across. I was encouraged to provide some variety with verticality and other encounters to break up the bridge. Happily the player character had a jump mechanic, and I was able to iterate on this process of breaking up the bridge.
Technical Skills honed:
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UE5 Blueprints: For this level, I was able improve upon earlier locked door concepts, but with a twist of it needing to be destroyed with a certain weapon. I expanded upon this, creating a system for destroying multiple items for a chest to open.
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Spline & Geometry Collection: I used a Blueprint along with a spline to simulate a boulder falling down a hill towards the player, which breaks upon impact with the wall. I also used the Unreal water plugin, which also utilized a spline system, to have the water stretch across the landscape, and give it a more natural look.
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Asset Pack BPs: I dug into some of the asset pack's BPs, and was able to take advantage of these enough, to tailor enemies' power level the way I desired. I was also able to edit the player character to help balance the power scale for the player to perform better.