Morality's veil
Role
Level designer, set dressing, blocking (level2), programmer/game designer (magic system and spells) VFX, 3D modeler (mostly props for my own level)
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Date
September 2024 - December 2024
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Tools used
Unreal engine 5
Substance painter
Substance designer
Maya
Blender
Synopsis
Elias, a student in a university studying alchemy, however his curiosity brought him to forbidden arts, eldritch magic. he got caught in class and thrown in prison. he soon finds out the town falls into chaos because of his study and now he is the one who must fix this.
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Details
Made during my last semester. We wanted to make a game with a Victorian esthetic with a few drops of steampunk. (I will put the images on the left in order of development)
Development as a level designer
We were a team of around seven. In this project I had a lot on my plate, I wanted to challenge myself and I loved it. It was also my first time really making the VFXs for an entire game. I want to grow and get better at everything I do for a game, but for obvious reasons this here will ONLY focus on level design.
The game has four levels, mine is the second; the cemetery. I knew for this project, since it is a horror, I had to kill it in ambience and environment design for this level. plus, with the game's narrative "Elias needs to go to the clocktower" I had confidence in my idea. In brief, I knew two things: I wanted to make it feel like it could be a real place and make the task of the level not hard. Later, in development, we concluded that my level should be the smallest in the game. so, it got smaller as time when on.
So first I started making a landscape, purposefully making it bigger than it needs to be with the reasoning being if I am not using that space I can use for background display. I wanted to player to go UP the cemetery for reasons I'll mention later and please I invite to watch my video of the level walkthrough right
The goal of the level is simple find a key that unlocks the way towards the clocktower, Victor the gravedigger probably as the key. When the player first spawns in the level they see three things in front of them.
1: The Clocktower
2: A set of stairs leading up to the cemetery.
3: A building/shack on their left next to the stairs
This was by design, they see the goal of the entire game: the Clocktower, so they know they need to go towards that direction, but they will find themselves blocked by a locked gate. If they try the building, they will find it also locked, so the stairs are the only option. The game designers wanted the game to be linear, I respected that through the level's flow. Once up the stairs they'll find themselves in the cemetery, will glowing mushrooms in front of them (an important detail for later), near the middle of the map next to the giant pillar/obelisk is the safe house indicated by the emissive purple lamp and flowing aura around the building. If they get in the safe house (*IF* as in optional, however they'll miss out on new spells) they'll find a checkpoint, 2 new spells, bullets and a note written by Victor telling the player to reach him in his other cabin, but they'll have to go through the forest over the broken fence to the left of the safehouse. Hoping the fence brings the player to a ledge looking at there left they will see the start of the level giving them a destination/goal. jumping and going through the forest they will gain access to the cabin they could not get in before; the player will find the key to the get, Victor's body and a note. removing the barricade blocking the front door of the cabin they exit and can now leave, going forward in their quest.
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Although admittedly simple, my level design for this game was not anything innovative or astonishing complex, as it was never meant to be, respecting the game designer's wishes; make this level short. However, I do think visually it is my best work yet (from conceptual to completely done) but I have a lot to learn if I want even better levels, however short they should/might be. Focusing on the environment, letting the level tell its own story is the selling point for this level. For my experience when we had people assess our game, they would often refer to parts of my level when they want to praise the game or its "vision", so I consider this an accomplishment as a designer. Now there is an infinite number of things I would have done differently; I would've better lighting, like in the gravedigger's shack, you cannot even see certain things in there because of how dark it is. I would have made more flora, bushes, shrubs etc. I would certainly furnish both buildings in the level even more, because I find them boring.
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the people i worked with
Alec Sylvester - Game designer (narrative design), Level designer (town level)
Layla Credali - Concept artist, Animation
Olivia Vitalei-D'Ermes - Game designer, 3D modeler, Character designer (boss; MR.Y) Programmer
Felix Girard - Level designer, Texture artist
Alisia Madore - Game designer, Level designer
Viliyan Koychev - Lead programmer, Boss fight designer
The level spawn point
As soon as level 2 starts you'll be greeted with this sight
A locked cabin and stairs the cemetery
The lamps were so important for this level as everything is dark, I wanted the perfect balance of light/dark unless players get close
The looming tower
The fog/mist beyond the gate, it gave us, the level designers, to hide what comes next.
Cemetery entrance
unfinished graves, giant obelisk, rows and rows of tombstones.
Rows of tombstones, some with colored urns
If you pay attention to the image below, you'll see red/blue/green urns, interacting with these urns gives the player ingredients for potions! so now they can stock up on materials and try their new spells!
Dug graves
The cemetery is maintained by Victor, so I wanted to give the illusion that the land is being used, actively, making new graves.
Direction through design
once the player as to go through the forest, on the ledge just before dropping into the forest the player can see the tall town building, basically the start of the level, giving, without instructions, a direction for the player
The forest
My personal favorite part of the level, the forest is dark and misleading on purpose, however through the level design from the start to just before the forest every points to one direction. with the only light source being the glowing mushrooms and scattered lamps
The lighting
The shadows mixed with the rays of light piercing through the trees, it really sets the mood.
One lone lamp post
This lamp post is alone in the dark, just like you
Graybox
empty flat landscape, I drew on it, giving me a blueprint of what I want
I shaped the landscape, the yellow circles are forest areas, the green and red lines are stone roads and dirt paths respectively, the blue areas are the tombstones, finally the purple triangle is the gate to the next level, the purple circle is the objective; the key.
The final product, dressed and shaped, things have changed in order to make the level smaller and more linear, for one the exit is closer to the start and if you notice they're used to be 2 ways to get into the cemetery but now there's only one. The extra space was used for the background giving a bit of sightseeing to the players curious enough to look.
