Aevus
A prototype of a level made in Unreal Engine 5
Date:
August 2021 - November 2021
Keywords:
Level design, Game asset creation, 3D modeling
Tools:
Pen and paper, Figma, Blender, Unreal Engine 5, Substance Painter
A prototype of a level made in Unreal Engine 5. The process consisted of sketching on the layout, creating a blockmesh based on the sketches and then creating 3D assets to finalize the level.
The challenge
A common concept in video games is the level. Levels in videogames are often linear, constricting players to a set path and a set sequence of events. This often reduces the player's sense of freedom and curiosity. This project explores how to design levels such that they allow for exploration and freedom while still providing a sense of progression and structure.
The process
User research
The process began with researching relevant topics such as level design principles, 3D asset creation workflows, and looking into programs like Unreal Engine and Substance Painter. Moreover, a few levels that were regarded to be well designed by people and that had this mix of linearity and freedom were analyzed.
The next step was creating and sending out a questionnaire to gather some initial data about what users liked about the levels that were previously analyzed. The answers suggested that people favored verticality and interconnectivity, though the level shouldn’t be so interconnected that it begins to lose a sense of structure and progression. Moreover, the visuals of the level were found to be important.
Sketches
After that, some sketches were drawn to decide the overarching theme of the level. These sketches focused on vistas from the players point of view, since the questionnaire showed that visuals were important.
In the end it was deemed that the sketch with the clocktower seemed the most promising in terms of allowing for different interconnected and vertically oriented layouts.
Moodboards
Along with the sketches, some moodboards were created to get a feel for potential aesthetics of the level. Multiple boards were created showcasing different elements of the level, such as the clocktower itself, street level buildings and overall color palettes.
Top down maps
Afterwards, some more sketches were drawn, this time focusing on the layout of the level. These were initially drawn as nodes and edges, showing where the player could make a choice between two paths. With a few different layouts, one of them was decided upon based on the fact that it had a good balance of interconnectivity and linearity.
A structure which was linear in the beginning and then more open ended after a certain point was used for this sketch. This structure was a good way of not overwhelming the player at the beginning while still leaving room for interconnectivity.
The sketches were then remade in Figma for the sake of creating a higher fidelity map of the level. There was some sketching done on where there could be items or enemies, but this was merely surface level and not intended to be in the final level. Some locked doors and keys to the locked doors were also placed in these sketches.
Finally, interviews were held to receive feedback on the sketches, which indicated that the sewers part of the level lacked interest. Thus, incentives such as a boss and more items were added to the sewers part of the level.
Blockmesh and 3D assets
Once the layout of the level had been fully decided, I began working on creating a blockmesh of the level. Once the blockmesh was finished, I began working on replacing the blocks with 3D assets.
The result
The project resulted in the level which I have given the placeholder name Aevus. Some level design patterns were found during this project which were now summarized, 5 top down maps were drawn (one for each “height level”) and a video showcase was made to help explain my thoughts and design choices. You can view screenshots of the level below, and you can view the video with the maps here.
