The Forest Temple | Benjamin Foster: Level Design Portfolio

Trailer

Type: Personal Project

Software Used: Unreal Engine 5.4, Adobe Illustrator

Genre: Action-Adventure

I used this project as a challenge to create a level that would fit within an Action-Adventure type game. 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 have 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.

Constraints

Unreal Engine 5
Dynamic Combat System - Bundle (Character Controller, AI, and Equipment System)
Action-Adventure/Puzzle genre: Appropriate framework to facilitate gameplay in this genre.
5-10 minutes of gameplay
Level must have a start, middle, end point and have a clear sense of progression

Layout

Image Gallery

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

Custom Blueprints

Fire Wall

Idol Chest

Drawbridge

Rockslide

Cage

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.