3D Platformer Level
Role
Level Designer
Introduction
This is a level design project made in Unity with 3D Physics Platformer assets. This level follows the principles of level design and fully explores what's possible with this frame: physics, AI and camera.
Year
2022
Genre
Action / Platform / Adventure
Platform
PC
Level Design
Beginning - Test and Iterate
3D Physics Platformer is the template for this project, it has a basic 3D character controller that can move, jump and grab things, the enemy (greenies) will seek and damage the player on hit, and there is also water volume with different gravity settings.
I made several goals to challenge myself: provide players with a sense of agency, explore the limit of the template, follow the principles of level design, and design several "aha" moments.
First version level "program and beats" draft
The idea is that the level is placed around a mountain, the player will feel the sense of progression by reaching different altitudes, and there will be points intended to make the player see his progress.
The level is divided into three parts, each focused on one theme, upon building and testing the level, I found that the water volume from the template didn't have the functionality for it to be massively used in a level, the visibility is bad, controls aren't bringing interesting new dynamics than the ground, and worst of all, the Camera of the template could not rotate up and down, meaning the level build with verticality in mind could not fit, which is what water is about: jump, fall with alternate gravity to bringing fresh experience.
Early area, serves to teach the mechanics and proving agency in a safe zone
The original water level was largely deleted to be come a more "physics playground"
Due to the low visibility and camera limitation, the intention of the water level switched to challenge the player's jumping and visual skill.
Finding the Limit
Upon reaching the later stage of the level, I wanted to give the player a grand finale, one that provides great emotion and challenge. The method level designer use to increase a challenge includes expanding it on quantity and quality, or giving it an interesting Twist, presenting the challenge in a different orientation or scenario. In this case, I choose to give the player a surprising turn.
The enemy from the template is frankly boring and not challenging. I created a moment where several enemies were placed behind a crate - in previous scenarios there would be coins placed behind a crate as hidden rewards. But this time when the player going to drag the box out of the way, he will find instead the box moves towards him.
The enemy only takes damage when the player collider touches it's "head", so I came up with an idea, if I scale up a regular enemy to the size that the player cannot stomp it on the ground, and design a scenario around finding the spot to defeat it, the experience would be so fresh and fun.
Wanna know more? Click icon below to download the Level Design Document for Boxy