Cole Williams - Level Design and System Design
Universal Movement System Project
The Universal Movement System Project was a project I worked on in Unreal Engine to test my ability to design levels for complex movement systems. The goal of this project was to test my skill as a level designers by creating levels that require more diversity to them than would be required for a basic movement system. The Universal Movement System is an asset from the Unreal Asset store that I made adjustments to in order to better fit my vision for the project.
Project Info:
Course: Senior Game Course
School: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Team Name: Neon Works
My Roles:
Level Designer
Systems Designer
Level Design
For my Universal Movement System level, my contributions included:
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Concept and creation of the level with the universal movement system in mind
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Creation of traversal encounters
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Placing collectibles throughout the level
Level Creation
The biggest challenge for me with creating a level around this movement system came from mastering how far the player can travel both vertically and horizontally in one jump or set of jumps. At the beginning of level creation, I was often either making the ledges too far to reach or too close to provide a challenge. Over time and testing, I was able to better judge depth of the player's movement. I also conducted playtests with players of various skill sets.
Environment
Unfortunately, the environment for this project was not fully finished before the end of the projects development. I had planned to add a smoke effect under the map to better show the player is falling into an abyss. Additionally, I would have liked to use different textures for the walls and floors. Another member of my game team was learning how to create textures so we decided to use his new texture for our set pieces. While the texture does help provide the game with a cyber-like theme that works well with the movement system, I feel that the colors make it difficult to differentiate between structures at times.
Tutorialization
To teach the player how to master the movement system, I used symbols within the environment hinting toward the best course of action to complete the current traversal encounter. Some of these symbols I placed prior to the attempt of an encounter while others I placed mid-encounter to help the player know precisely when to perform certain actions.
System Design
As a System Designer for the Universal Movement System project, my contributions included:
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Finding and modifying a movement system that worked for our needs
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Creating mechanics and conditions for the player's movement
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Creating a fail and respawn system
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Creating a checkpoint system
The Universal Movement System
Universal Movement System is an asset we downloaded from the Unreal Asset store and can be found here. I made some changes to the basic function of the system to better fit our desired movement style. Firstly, I turned off some features using blueprints such as sliding, gliding, and swimming so that we had a playstyle more focused on running and jumping. After this, I added the ability to double jump to add some more verticality to the game. Having a double jump also allows for the player to have more control and make directional changes when in air. I accomplished this by adding the ability to jump a second time without needing to check for the ground before resetting the jump. I then reused most but not all of the original jump animation as to give the appearance of jumping but without having to push off of the ground.
The next mechanic I added was the ability to jump off of one wall then continue wall running on a second wall without needing to touch the ground in between. Adding a second wall run allows for the player to cover a larger area while staying in motion. Having this fluidity over a long range keeps the player engaged and gives a unique game feel.
These two mechanics combined provide the ability to achieve advanced traversal maneuvers to complete more difficult traversal encounters.
Checkpoint System
I created a checkpoint system using blueprints that tracks when the player has entered the area of a checkpoint and changes their new spawn location to that position. If the player collides with a new checkpoint boundary that is further in the level, they will respawn their instead. The player will not be able to activate old checkpoints again. There is also a space under the map which checks for when the player has reached an out of bounds part of the level. When this happens, the player character switches to the falling animation for a moment before being respawned to their most recent checkpoint.
