QINGYUAN FAN
(Adam Fan)
Project Starcore
Level Design
This is a personal level design project made in UE5. It is inspired by Dead Space Remake (2023), in which players have to complete tasks while traversing in small sections of the level. This is an ongoing project still in the early stage, and the purpose of having it so early is to demonstrate my thinking and working process, so this page will be updated as the level is iterated.
Step 1: Layout Draft
The image on top is the first draft for the level design of a horror game. The idea is to have a small section of the map that players start and finish in the same room. Players are expected to clear the enemies, solve puzzles and open doors, and eventually defeat a boss before returning to the first room. The game time for this level is roughly 5-10 mins. Because of the horror elements, there are quite a few corners, blocking player's view and increasing the feeling of unknown. At the same time, a few rewards are added to encourage player's desire to explore the area.
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The area is primarily divided into three parts. The first part is the starting zone on the bottom left, which is linear and intended to teach players how to use switches to open the doors. The second part is the two main rooms on the top, which contains the two key switches for the Boss room. The experience for the two rooms should be different, and the order to go through them are entirely up to players. The last part is a big boss room on the bottom right, and defeating the boss will grant players access to the whole level, including some rewards previously unattainable to players.
Step 2: Blockout
The second step is mostly blockout the level in Unreal Engine 5 to a playable state, a starting point for iteration and adding new features. By controlling the character and playing through the level, designers and testers are able to tell all the improvements this level need from their first-hand experiences, instead of discussing the vague feeling. It is very early, so players do not have much ways to input besides opening doors, and no interactions with enemies have been added.
From the result of the early blockout, several points can be found. To start with, the vertical space is not well used. Even though there are a few places with elevation, they did not substantially make the level more fun to play. Also, many visual elements can be improved when assets are used to replace the greybox. For example, to open the door for the boss room, two switches need to be turned on. Currently there are two separate doors overlapping one another, which is confusing for players especially from the in-game camera angle. A simple solution is to set a light besides each door, and two lights for the boss room door.