Cole Williams - Level Design and System Design
Game Kit Project: Fetch Mission
This project asked students to create a fetch mission using the game kit provided to us which include game assets such as a main character, enemies, environment pieces, interactables, and more in order to create a level where the main objective is to collect all 5 crystals and escape in the space ship. Level design was a large part in the creation of this project.
Project Info:
Course: Mission and Quest Design
School: DigiPen Institute of Technology
My Roles:
Solo Creator (With premade assets)
Core Concept
For the Fetch Mission project, I knew I wanted the crystals to be a challenge to obtain, and have each of them locked behind unique encounters. In order to do this, I had each encounter test a different skill of the player. The maze section for example would test the player's ability to navigate while the jumping section filled with spitters tested the player's skill at movement under pressure. After each challenge, the player is awarded a crystal.
Timeline Map
The timeline map allowed me to plan out how long each encounter might take. I would later playtest to see if my predictions were correct. Depending on the results, I would tweak the environment to allow for players to spend more or less time on different areas.
Flow Map
The flow map allowed me to see plan and visually express how many encounters, and what types, that I am incorporating into the level. Including the difficulty of the encounters and their length allowed me to better visualize the pacing of the level so that I do not make things too easy or too difficult for the player.
Encounter 1: First Crystal Fight
Encounter 1 has two regular Chomper enemies guarding a crystal that is visible to the player. This introduces the crystals to the player in an easy and obvious way. The encounter is on its own without distraction in a narrow section of island to give the player a straight path and goal.
Encounter 2: Round Island
Encounter 2 takes place on a round island with multiple pathways that open up to the player. This area is the central hub with a locked door to indicate to the player they will need to return here. The assignment required the use of the provided teleporters, so the round island has teleporters to take the player to 2 other islands that have crystals. When the player returns with both crystals from the other islands, the key to the locked door will appear in the middle of the round island.
Encounter 3: Spitter Island
Encounter 3 is an area where I wanted the player to feel a sense of rush while also testing their mastery over the movement mechanics. To do this, I placed Spitter enemies which fire projectiles on both sides of a chasm that the player needs to cross to reach one of the crystals. The Spitters will fire at the player, requiring the player to dodge shots while also jumping from platform to platform. For this area, I had to issues that arose:
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Issue 1:
The Spitters were not hitting the player properly. This issue was something that was somewhat out of my control as the Spitters were premade assets and the professor told us the class is a work in progress and not all of the kinks were worked out as far as the enemy behaviors.
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Solution: I placed the Spitters in different areas as well as more at the end to hopefully give them a better chance of hitting the player. I also moved the platforms the player needs to jump across to give it a little more difficulty if the Spitters are not working properly.
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Issue 2:
During playtesting I noted that players who had obtained the crystal in the area were diving off the edge of the platform on the far side in order to spawn back at the teleporter in the beginning of the area. This takes away half the challenge by removing the need to jump across platforms to get back to the teleporter after retrieving the crystal.
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Solution: I added a checkpoint at the end platform so players who had retrieved the crystal will spawn there rather than back at the beginning.
Encounter 4: Acid Island
Encounter 3 had a dramatic change after the initial design phase. The given asset for acid did not allow for as much versatility as I intended and it became a lot of assets to place that could not be resized properly. Along with this, the acid was easily jumped over and looked off placed on the ground in a maze pattern. Instead, I made the maze with landscape pieces and decided to put acid as well as enemies within the maze. The enemies detect the player on sight and are placed in a way where some are noticeable to the player while other appear as more of a surprise. Acid is also placed in such a way where it is not always seen coming. I used acid as well as some vegetation to provide landmarks for the player to keep track of their position within the maze.
Encounter 5: Return to Round Island
After Encounters 3 and 4, the player should return to the round island where a key will appear. Collecting this key opens the locked door that proceed to the rest of the level.
Encounter 6: Leveled Island
This island has some variance to it as the player can move and fight between two platforms. The player can take a teleporter to get to the upper platform and can proceed to the rest of the level from the area at the end with the moving platforms. The leveled island mixes fighting enemies on the ground with enemies shooting from afar that are out of reach, providing a new challenge that requires decision making or good timing to survive.
Encounter 7: Moving Platforms
After implementing my original design for the moving platforms, I realized they weren't much of a challenge or an encounter. I decided to rework the design to make the moving platforms be more focused on and less of a single use ride to the next crystal. There are now multiple moving platforms and a clear shot of where the player is being taken to. There are also additional moving platforms after the crystal that lead to the next cutscene which introduces the boss fight.
Encounter 8: Boss Fight
I wanted the final area to feel like an overwhelming test of might. To do this I put the player falling into an arena where they witness the cutscene prior to fighting the final boss. As they fight the boss, smaller enemies of every variety seen so far spawn to aid the boss in the fight. The player can focus on the boss and win without defeating all the smaller enemies, or defeat all the smaller enemies then defeat the boss. The area is an arena with multiple objects to hide from Spitters behind as well as health packs to collect.
Something my playtesters, graders, and I really liked that I did for this fight was have the final crystal spawn on the boss' body as they are performing their defeat animation. It flows very well and looks realistic. This was not required and was something I added as a smalll nice touch.