THIRD PERSON OPEN WORLD LEVEL DESIGN
Developed Over - 1 Week
Engine - Unreal Engine 4
Assets Used - Advanced Locomotion System V4
INTRODUCTION
I tried to create a BOTW-inspired level. This is somewhat of an area the player would find while roaming around in the early game. Completing this optional quest will reward the player with a new weapon.
MY GOAL
My goal was to follow the core gameplay of BOTW, which was to never handhold the player entirely but instead let the player figure out pathways on their own through carefully places breadcrumbs.
PROCESS
STUDYING ASSETS
Since the assignment already provided me with certain assets and gave me a limitation on the amount I can use, I mainly tried to study them and work on which area would be the most suitable for the given scenario.
REFERENCES
I decided upon blocking out a broken temple, for this I used the pictures of the Martand Sun Temple as my main reference.
WALKTHROUGH
GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS
BREAKING EXPECTATIONS
Since I wanted the player to find their own way through the Breadcrumbs. One of my main breadcrumbs was to showcase the staircase to the highest structure and then immediately block it off. This would let the player know Two things.
A) Getting to this structure will offer the player a reward, and
B) the Main pathway is blocked, So they'll need to find a new one.
EXPLORATION
This will lead the player to walk around and explore all the surrounding areas instead of running directly towards the goal. This exploration will reward the player with a secret pathway toward the structure.
LEVEL SHOWCASE
REFLECTIONS
I feel like I created a decent experience within the restriction of 1) Amount of Assets and 2) One-week deadline while following the core values of BOTW. This was a pretty fun project which led to blocking out the level in a different way.Â
There are still quite a lot of issues I find in the level, Mainly the Exploration, which I would like to rework if I ever come back to this project. I would like to work on a Lock and Key method, which would make the player roam around all the areas more instead of immediately finding out the passageway. Overall this was a great learning experience.