Written by Adam Maslak @4ydam

This is both an expansion on what Brought Upon is with more context provided on design decisions, and also a reflection on my work after 2 years since it got made.

Let's talk Level Design

Now, this was our first team project where everyone had to specialise in a certain field to deliver content required in order to get results. As the team lead, I had to spend a lot of time providing context behind the idea for the project so everyone would have a better understanding of what my expectations were.

In terms of level design, my focus was around gameplay which allowed the player to explore all areas within the level without any limits. Main inspiration for it was Super Mario Odyssey. So much freedom in deciding where you can go and always being able to find something to interact with. And my solution for creating 'borders' for the levels was having the structure of islands for all of the sections in the game. Every level would differ in what an island is. One level would have a void that you can fall into and die, another having an ocean (you can't swim, you play as a robot) and another being a mist, playing on top of skyscrapers and indicating how high up you actually are.

I believe that this was an efficient way of creating foundations for level design for our game. With these 3 concepts, I have provided context behind what I had envisioned and the way we can design our levels. Underlining multiple ways of approaching level design, as well as highlighting the scope of the project. We had something to use when discussing the work in our team meetings.

So, when we started developing the game, artists were getting started on assets for the game, programmers on basic functionality, and I have focused on designing the game to provide visual references to help when putting it all together. Now, doing so I had to allocate some time for myself doing this and ultimately ended up losing development time which is never good. I do believe that without that it would have been much worse for everyone and having to just go off of my word. I couldn't assume everyone was on the same level as me in terms of understanding level design and overall how to create a meaningful experience for the player.

A lot of hours have been dedicated in Unity in creation of blockouts and possible ideas in order to provide examples of what the rest of the team could work on. The emphasis here was on verticality and platforming, however not just from a platform to platform but first understanding the environment and where the action is taking place, to then build the path for the player on top of it. That way it automatically allows for better design and building sections that give sense of progression in the game and building narrative.

The action was meant to take place in outskirts of a city at first, and traversing through challenges in the built path with a lot of enemies on your way (marked as red). There is a clear path and indication of where the player needs to go, however also allows for some exploration and chance to go in areas that are not going to really take you anywhere specific. That is where extra content would be scattered around, like collectables, or hidden NPCs to interact with for conversation, but also challenges which you can accept and attempt completing. (More on that in the development log for 'Structural Game Design')

There was a time where I also tried re-creating the level from Super Mario Odyssey to show off the process I go through to get results and overall show my thought process when it comes to level design. At some point it turned into me being more of a teacher than team lead, constantly trying to prove a point and share my knowledge with my peers to get them to do better.

At one point I had to make it very clear that we do not want floating objects when they shouldn't appear as floating. If there is a way to make something blend in nicely, it should be done that way, rather than seeing a clear cut of where it ends when it doesn't have to.

That's when you know someone ain't good at building in Minecraft. They don't put the stairs behind their staircase to make it look better, or pulling it all the way down to the floor so it doesn't just float there weirdly. It's the small things that improve your presentation and make your work look more finished. Practice is important. Without it you can't get better, but something that I feel like people don't appreciate as much is being observant. No matter the game I play, I always pay so much attention to detail and how things are put together to create what we play every day. Especially if it is a really successful game, why? What have they done right?

Overtime we could see improvements in our work and progressing with the game's aesthetics and quality of our work. We managed to turn our basic designs into something that is more visually pleasing and vibrant with use of colours after receiving assets to use from the artists. It was one of the more enjoyable times on the project for me, when pulling in some of these assets to populate the level with and seeing it all in a more finished and playable state.

My Method of Visual Blockouts

Something that I have done a lot for this project was creating a blockout, and proof of concept for each level and then taking it to Krita (Free Photoshop) and drawing on top of it to add onto it with what I would imagine would be included in that level. Also provide some short annotations for future references.

When creating these blockouts, I got a million ideas on how they can look and function all together, and I just needed a way to present it to others without spending any time implementing any mechanics into the game as it would be quite time consuming. So instead, I was able to create a blockout and then quickly draw on top of it. For instance, drawing the path for a moving platform to show how the player would be going through a section, because without that path it looks like a bunch of platforms to jump on top of.

Now again, whilst being able to show pathing and where something like a moving platform would go, I also was able to show where a boss would be located within the level. Even a simple drawing like that creates a bigger picture for what this level is meant to be. It was all about saving time without sacrificing the presentation of my ideas. I needed to provide for my team and come in with a plan everyday, and it's hard.

It was a big eye opener for everyone on what is possible and how much more creative you can be with designing the game and creating a more meaningful experience and objectives with a bit of narrative. It really isn't just some platforming, but being able to provide interactions that immerse the player and get you to perform many actions before progressing to the next stage.

Even with a game not having narrative or not revolving around some storyline, you need narrative design. Understanding the setting of the game and where it takes place, to then create an environment which leads the player without breaking that immersion and naturally leading towards set objectives.

Final Thoughts

With all of that presented and examples being given by me all along, the message somehow wasn't clear enough. And even looking back at it 2 years after, I still can't tell where the problem lied. Was I not good enough as a leader and did not help my team enough, or were they simply incompetent?.. 

As harsh as it may sound, I do believe that others I had to work with on this project were simply not good enough and not capable of delivering to the quality and level of expectation I had at the time. (Except Jakub, he had to carry this project doing all of the programming)

 Everyone was still learning and trying to get better, but it didn't feel like it at many times. Either not working well as part of the team, not taking this seriously and not putting enough time into the project, and also not being able to take criticism and feedback that I have been providing all along as lead. Also, everyone felt somehow scared of giving feedback to each other, either not wanting to be involved in any serious conversations, or hurting anyone's feelings. Which can hurt the project more, unable to make it better, thinking everyone is doing well.

Anyhow, it has been a very valuable experience for me, understanding what its like working with others, and also trying to lead a project. Many times I have gone to the length of teaching everyone basics of design and how they can get better at it, which funny enough, somehow lead to me actually becoming a teacher and doing this full time...