Level Design Project in Unreal
-Click here for project's Itch.io page-
My first game project in Unreal engine was part of the course: Game Design 4 - Level Design. The main assignment had students work in groups to create a level that could be part of a bigger game experience. In my group with me worked: Miranda Angyal, Martina Edfast, Helsing and Wilma Svensson.
The game is an adventure horror experience, with stylistic inspiration from the PS1 era of games, set on a cliffside island surrounded by a beach with a coastal cave. The player character is a young adult partying on the island with their friends. After passing out, they wake up alone the morning after with no one to be seen.
For the level design aspect of the project I was in charge of all parts that take place inside the house. I whiteboxed and decorated the house before and after the interior changes, as well as placed all indoor fixed cameras. I also got to program using Unreal Engine's blueprint scripting language, which I used to create the transitions between levels as well as the key and lock system used in the game. Other contributions included helping to move the overall design process forward with active participation in ideation and design discussions.
Since this was my first time working in Unreal, many thing were still new. This was also my first proper game experience made in 3D. I learned quite a bit about scripting in blueprints and gained general knowledge of the engine itself. It was also fun to experiment with the principles of level design and environmental storytelling that had been taught in the course leading up to the assignment, such as using lighting, pacing, and intersperced props to set the mood and convey a what series of events had occured prior to the player waking up.
A challenge of the project was the constant fight the team had with version control. Because Unreal's blueprints are binary, merge conflicts had to be avoided at all costs. This put the team's communication to the test, and, in the end, some good practices were thusly learned through trial and error.
Welcome to the tea party, what would you like? Earl Grey? Gasoline?