Blood Temple
Level blockout
action adventure with stealth elements inspired by
classic adventure games like Tomb Raider & Uncharted
Overview
Project Details
In this piece I aimed for a classic adventure level in the vein of Uncharted and Tomb Raider. I wanted to design a fun and immersive linear level while incorporating elements of stealth, cutscenes and collectibles.
Level Goals
- medium to large sized linear level
- Core Game Pillars:
Exploration - Puzzle solving - Stealth encounters
Inspirations
- Tomb Raider
- Uncharted series
- Indiana Jones
Themes
- exploration, adventure, historical fiction
- archeology, tomb prospecting
Tech
- Unreal Engine 5
- UE custom made Blueprints
Game Design
Core Loop
Exploration - world building - collectibles - stealth segments - puzzle solving - story
Player Mechanics
Basic movement
Climbing
- vaulting
- mantling
- vertical walls and cliff climbing
- ledge grab
Collecting
- collecting treasures
Items
- flashlight
- bandages
- collectibles - treasures - coins
Level Puzzles
- temple Vault puzzle minigame
concept art by hamaterasu25
Design Process
Level research
At the start of this level, there were several initial ideas for the setting, time and place. The research and brainstorming for this one covered many different themes. In the end I settled for a jungle themed level in tribute to the Tomb raider series that inspired this project the most.
Level Description
Our protagonist finds themselves on the shores of a river village, somewhere deep in the Yucatan jungle. In the distance can be seen the tops and spires of The Great Temple Complex. Around them, smoke and commotion is stirring. The notorious Mercenary group is already there!
The protagonist must break through the jungle, abandoned tribal villages and temple ruins to find the legendary Blood Tear, the largest red diamond in the world, before the mercenaries get to it.
Mood & Atmosphere
- dense tropical jungle - interspersed with ancient Mesoamerican temples and tribal villages
- time is just before the sunset, giving yellowish, orange almost red hues filling the environment
Scale & Architectural Style
- medium to large scale environment, with multiple areas and zones that facilitate various playstyles
- villages are tribal and very simplistic in structure
- meanwhile the temples are enormous, almost towering and oppressing the player character but also dazzling in its splendor and complexity of layouts
Level Areas, Pacing
& Intensity
Since this was a single player linear story driven level, I wanted to develop the pacing and intensity in the research phase of the level, so I can have a better grasp of the structure the level will take on in 3D space.
Layouts
Diagrams & Sketches
Drawing layouts was especially fun on this project. I designed and sketched in many different scales, ranging from broad sketches showcasing the entire level, to the smaller scale drawings used to define the details of some spaces before starting them in 3D.
Large Scale sketches
Showing the whole level and its overall pacing.
Detail drawings
Since the level was so large scale I had to create some preliminary drawings of certain areas before modeling them.
Blockout
Level Overview
Moving from layout variations, the blockout also had its start in different layouts being considered.
A top down representation of the overall level space, with marked locations of enemy spawners, items and major game areas and events.
Level Flow & Beats
Moving from layout variations, the blockout also had its start in different layouts being considered.
The final design was then a product of thorough testing and reimporting in game engine, to see the blockout and space in 3D, to get its flow and achieve optimal player immersion and movement
Vistas
An important part of designing this level was creating a series of guidelines and vistas that lead the player throughout the experience.
Level Features
For this project I used a premade blueprint pack for Unreal, named IWALS - Interaction with Advanced Locomotion systems - which comes with a tonne of useful game ready features and mechanics, like enemy AI, climbing system, vaulting mantling systems and an inventory system with weapons and light sources.
Full Playthrough
Testing
Playtesting the Level
The final step in level creation was playtesting. I gathered a wide variety of people to play the game, with various experiences in playing video games. This was done to collect as much feedback and level bugs as possible.
Testers Feedback
Playtesters feedback and notes were a great source of revision for the level. Not only did it produce bugs that were critical for playability of the level but also gave insight into what the players liked and disliked and gave me a clearer path to polish the level.
Level Pros
- playtesters liked the scale and the overall game feel the level exudes
- the most popular parts were: the waterfall, the temple entry and the temple vault
- most playtesters also really appreciated the little bits here and there that enhanced the overall experience - the secret under the waterfall, the way the first enemy is introduced, the scale of the temples and their grandeur, the possibility of choice in certain areas and the variability of different areas
- most testers were also very pleased with the pacing of the whole level
Level Cons
- most of the drawbacks that the testers pointed out sprang from the duration of the level
- some players found that the level was too large overall, at least without a checkpoint system at the moment
- some found the climbing sections very tedious and think the level would benefit from removing them completely
- also some testers agreed that the AI could be unpredictable at times, and that the level layout and the configuration of encounter spaces could alleviate those problems instead of changing their code
Conclusion
This level taught me so much about level design and designing linear levels for action adventure type of games.
I think the most important lesson I took from it was: create the rough draft of the blockout as soon as possible, and test it. This would not only help with the size and duration of the level but also would help me focus only on the most important parts and cut the fat early in the process, so to say.
The final level that is featured in this page is only a fraction of the initial blockout from which I cut out 2-3 zones to get it to this state. I cut those parts late in the development, parts that were almost finished, which unfortunately took a lot of time. That is why next time, planning scale and pacing ahead, will be my first priority for this type of levels.