Level Design — Thales Rebelo

GHOULF

GHOULF is a third-person isometric minigolf-esque puzzle game, where the player helps a poor soul who got misplaced in Hell to reunite with its body and successfully escape. This project was developed in Unity, through the course of 2 days.

I was the Level Designer.

- Designed levels, from paper to engine implementation.

- Fine-tuned difficulty and gamplay aspects according to development

- Playtested extensively to create a cohesive difficulty curve

- Defined scoring ranges for a 3-star rating system

GMTK Game Jam 2021 Rankings:

Presentation: #31

Overall: #86

Originality: #229

Fun: #336

Quest For Valor

Type: Academic Project @ Vancouver Film School

Team size: 1

Production: 3 weeks

Released: May 2018

Responsibilities:

2D layout planning
Narrative design
Level Design Document
Whiteboxing
Platforming sections (2)
Puzzle design
Enemy encounter design
Boss fight design
Set dressing
Testing and balancing
Cutscenes
Scripting

Tools used:

Unreal Engine 4.19
Adobe Photoshop CC
Microsoft Word

Links:

Overview

For VFS GD course’s third term, students were assigned on a 6 parts, 3 weeks project in which they would be responsible for, within a set framework, the design and implementation of a level and quests, along with every other aspect that orbits them, such as: narrative, dialogue, cutscenes, platforming, puzzles and enemy encounters.

Design

For my project, Juno would embark on a journey through the village’s well in order to renew a thousand-year-old seal cast on the Skeleton King by her ancestors.

The level is divided in 3 sublevels and contains the following:

A hub area
2 platforming sections
A puzzle section
A normal enemy encounter
A boss fight

Click here for the Level Blueprint

Sublevel 1: Starting Hub & Platforming I

The game opens with a cutscene of Juno coming back from a hunt in the surrounding forest. The village would appear fairly normal if not for its central landmark being a well covered by a huge rock. From this point forward, the player in control can talk to villagers by approaching them. When they say something related to the progression, a chime can be heard.

By gathering clues from villagers, the player is directed to a small shrine which has an interactable statue that, when activated, creates a huge explosion coming from the middle of the village. As soon as the player leaves the shrine, they can easily notice the rock over the well is not there anymore.

Down the well is the first platforming section of the level. To improve variety, this section is a descent platforming, in which the player has to carefully plan their next step to be able to reach the end with no to minimal fall damage inflicted on themselves. There is also an optional path that has an extra health potion, should the player want to challenge themselves.

The hub area was thoroughly crafted (with extra cheeky dialogue lines) so the player could be hooked on to the narrative as soon as possible. Also, the original framework didn’t have a fall damage system; creating one and balancing it ended up being really fun.

Click here for the Sublevel 1 Blueprint

Sublevel 2: Puzzle & Combat

The puzzle section involves water buoyancy, potentially previously introduced if the player jumped in the pond by the hub’s shrine. Even though, it is fairly simple, has no time limit, and has carefully placed audio cues to guide the player; the focus is not on difficulty, but on how satisfying it is to solve it. By the end, the player is also introduced to a mechanic that will be used in the next room.

Right next to the puzzle room there is the combat room. There are 3 melee enemies and 4 ranged enemies, in which 2 of the ranged ones die instantly using the mechanic showed in the puzzle room. With ample area to move around, the player has to pick their fights and slowly defeat their enemies one by one. The key for progressing to the next room is a guaranteed drop from the big melee enemy, should the player choose to not dispose of the ranged ones first and fight head-on.

Click here for the Sublevel 2 Blueprint

Sublevel 3: Platforming II & Boss Fight

The first sight the player has right after entering the next room is an ominous and obvious boss door, although not immediately accessible. By checking their surroundings, they can observe a platforming section that can be tackled in two ways, one being a higher risk, higher reward one. Depending on how the last room went, the player may also want to check the healing fountain by the middle of the safer but longer platforming path.

The Skeleton King boss fight has three intermission phases in which the main challenge is dealing with their surroundings. It starts with 4 archers to defeat, then next it ramps up with 6, and finally culminates in 8 mages but with a twist: the player also gets turned into a chicken. After dodging two waves of mage projectiles, the Skeleton King finally succumbs, leaving their defenses open for the player to dish the final attacks.

Click here for the Sublevel 3 Blueprint