Level Design Blog

 So in this last post for my Solo LD project I'll just be giving a quick overview of all the rooms and flow of the level! I've got the step by step below, but have a video walkthrough as well:  https://youtu.be/AY_stzLl7w0 1. The player starts at the site of grace, and walks in towards the boss door. 2. The player then progresses into the tomb. They can then continue into the Grand Gallery (which is a dead-end), or take the stairs into the Common Tombs. 3. The player continues through the common tombs to the Spiked Ceiling Trap room, where the correct path lies underneath the floor.   4. The player will then continue under the spiked trap to the First lever where the Sand Trap is.                                              5. They fall through the trap, and must go through the spiked platform challenge room, to get to the lever on the other s...

In this post I'm showcasing the last changes I made for the final submission of this project. I mentioned that I was almost done with my BPs, but I've still been polishing them right up to the end. I also actually dove for the first time into Widget Blueprints! I made a Win screen to show after the player kills the final boss, and a temporary message once the player has pulled all 3 levers. Like I mentioned in my last post, I also ended up editing both the player's stats, and the enemies. I even got into the Behavior Tree for one of the AIs that I'm using for my boss! It was hard to find at first, but after that I was able to tune the character to my liking! The final fight feels pretty balanced now in my opinion, but we'll have to see what play-testers think. After some feedback on the visual structure of my level, I made some overhaul changes to the way hallways and doors look. I knew I'd likely end up needing to change these, to get rid of the 'boxy' ...

As stated in my proposal I was to have a full initial blockout by this 2nd Checkpoint.  As I predicted in my last post, I've spent a lot of time polishing my BPs to make sure they're fully functional and polished. I even added in a puzzle-esque platforming challenge that requires you to use levers to move platforms around! I was also able to also make the enemy spawner BP akin to an actual souls-like game! So every time you die, the enemies spawn right back where they were. Naturally I had to test the combat for this, and am still working out the kinks on the HP & amount of the enemies. I was able to use Unreal's modeling tools to make a couple of Egyptian hieroglyphs! I definitely feel more comfortable using those tools, and am extremely happy with how they turned out: As a couple of extra addons, I was able to make a hidden wall BP, and was also able to make a 'fog' BP that appears when you pass into the boss arena that locks you in, and keeps other enemies ou...

 As my last post stated, I was suppossed to have my LDD and all of my main Blue prints working by the first checkpoint. This is a link to my LDD: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14I3cizQiclXG3LnNC_kbdLAz2oUSMSBSHQh5lZzDzwc/edit?usp=sharing For this level, I wanted to follow the Core game-loop of the Catacomb levels; which is to have a locked boss door at the beginning, and to navigate through the rest of the level to find the lever to unlock it. With this framework in mind, I still wanted to make it unique, as all catacombs within Elden Ring have their own twist within each one.  I did some research on reddit on opinions of the catacombs, to discover what was considered good, and what could be improved upon. The main complaint was that they felt repetitive with the same theme and look in every single one. The positives were the experiences people had trying to solve some of the puzzles within the levels. The more mind-screwy, the better. So I tried listing out all ...

 For our last LD project, we were asked to come up with a level with no constraints on the idea. Below is what my proposal looked like: The idea I'd like to attempt, would be an Elden Ring Catacombs-style level. These levels often have a clear goal at the beginning of them, like a big locked door leading to a boss fight. The trick with these levels is to find the lever to unlock the boss door. However there is usually some form of navigational/combative puzzle to find this lever; you may walk right by the real path to the lever, without even realizing it. Throughout Elden Ring these levels get progressively bigger and more difficult, with the goal of exploring every corner to find the real path. I would like to attempt to do an early to mid-game sized level, where I'd estimate about 5-7 small to mid-sized rooms, including the boss arena. I definitely think this type of level must be meticulously planned to make the loop feel realistic back to the original entry. This also inclu...