Level Design
Project - The Temple of the Dosa Cat
As part of one of the programs courses here at Full Sail University (Level Design I), I was tasked with designing and building a level blockmesh from scratch. In light of this, we were guided on the process used to efficiently and effectively take a level from idea to the blockmesh stage, as shown below.
Using images from the internet that I had gathered, I had managed to provide some semblance of what level I intended to build. Satisfied with this, I began to work on the initial prototype of my level blockmesh.
Satisfied with my prototyped base layout of level blockmesh, I began to refine it further and give it more of a shape. It was during this time that I also began to think of and refine a backstory behind this level, in order to also provide some meaning as to why the player would come to such an area. This led to me giving more thought into the players thought-process and psychology and, in turn, I ended up creating a story behind this level!
Following Level Design I, in the next course (Project & Portfolio II: Game Design), we were tasked with forming a team and collaborating with other level designers from the previous month on the school provided Adventure project. We had to make a good cohesive level using the levels we had designed and created prior. My team consisted of me (Mohan Goel), Tevin Marshall, Gary Garrison, Okechukwu "Bobby" Ezekwesili, and Sheridan Aikey. While it was worthwhile to do, it had quite a few ups and downs. Check out the video below to see the final version I had submitted for class (automatically starts from my area at 8:00)!
PROJECT POST MORTEM
What Went Right:
-
Layout - As we started collaborating together, we were able to come to a consensus on how the overall flow of the whole level should be and whose sublevel should come where. We managed to stick to this and keep the flow continuous and comprehensive.
-
Assets - So this is something that was both good and bad, specifically for me. It was good mostly because of the fact that a decent majority of the assets I required was found pretty quickly through various sites like Turbosquid, Free3d, and the Unreal Asset store.
-
Transitions - We managed to keep the transitions between each of our sublevels and make the level more cohesive and flowing. To take different sublevels and try to merge them to make them more adhesive and close-knit is a difficult task, and I would say we managed to do that pretty well.
-
My Temple Entrance - I am actually proud and happy of the assets I found and used for the temple entrance. It was an area that I was worried about as I feared that I would need to create my own assets for that area. Surprisingly I was able to find the relevant assets to use there with almost little to no trouble!
-
Level Blockmesh Migration - I managed to migrate my sublevel for the level fairly smoothly for the project and was happy that there were no problems in this part!
What Went Wrong:
-
Team Cohesion - While a lot of us were on par with each other, there was one member that was not very open to anything and was definitely not pleasant to work with at all. His work resulted in the rest of us being forced to deal with errors that would arise because of his unwillingness to understand the situation and accept any errors on his side. He made things very unprofessional and delayed a lot of the deadlines we had set for ourselves.
-
Perforce-Unreal Issues - Many times, there would be other issues arising on Perforce. In a lot of cases, Unreal would crash as we would be updating and submitting the work we have done. We would sometimes notice that perforce has indeed pushed those updates but upon checking on another teammates workspace, it would not be so.
-
Lighting - As has always been the case for me, I have always struggled with lighting in all levels I work on in Unreal Engine. This time was also no exception to that! Even now, I struggle with doing lighting, but I feel as though I am getting a little bit better at it.
-
Time Management - Having to do more than I anticipated due to lack of time management was something that I struggled with and still do from time to time now.
-
Malfunctioning Blueprints - After completing a good portion of the project, we were faced with a massive problem. Some of the blueprints I had used in the level stopped working to the point where we either had to fix them or come up with new ways to bypass them.
CONCLUSION: While the issues faced this month for the team were daunting, I am proud of what we have accomplished this month. My team has been nice to work with the more I got to know them and I look forward to working with some of them in the future. This project has been an incredible learning experience.