Child of Ruin
Responsibilities
- Designed and created a 3D isometric single-player narrative RPG level with subsections and gates.
- Planned and placed assets for low, mid, and high level detail.
- Integrated key features into the level, such as invisible collisions, gates, and kill boxes.
- Optimized the level.
- Further polished the level after the jam's 72 hours for a Steam release.
- Scripted the water material.
- Collaborated with a global team of programmers, producers, narrative writers, artists, and marketing.
As part of the Ludum Dare game jam team formed by the Indie Game Academy, I was given the opportunity and the responsibility to create the world that the player would experience our narrative RPG through. In order to execute this, I coordinated closely with the art, engineering, design, and narrative teams in order to determine scope and zone themes.
To start on the map, I first started with what I knew from the specs I was given:
- The level should have 4 main gates.
- There should be 4 main islands.
- Assets and mechanics must be negotiated before development begins.
Based off of these specifications, I first decided to establish the general flow of the level between POIs. In this case, I treated each island as a POI. The structure was fairly linear, as that is what the design mechanics required.
However, I also included a lane from exploration area 4 to exploration area 1, so that the player could easily backtrack if they missed any optional collectibles. This prevents the player from having to walk
through the entire level again just to collect a single collectible from the beginning, and overall makes the player's experience more pleasant and hassle-free.
Aside from these specs, I was given fairly free reign when it came to the design of the level. The first step was to meet with art and narrative (I was part of the design team, and thus already up to speed with them), and establish what the settings and asset list would be. We had a very successful meeting, and I was able to begin drafting the level immediately after.
This was my first draft of the first island, the Crystal gardens. I wanted each area to feel distinct and memorable both in terms of gameplay and setting,
so the Crystal gardens became a forested maze. However, in order to keep navigability easy, multiple correct paths were created. While this was mainly to help the player navigate the level easier,
it also served to increase the size of the area for the player to explore when searching for collectibles. This would ensure that the task was difficult enough, and thus a rewarding experience. As an added note, the collectibles
were kept to the side throughout all levels, to further encourage and incentivize exploration.
The second island was designed from a similar approach as island 1 - it needed to feel distinct in terms of gameplay. I ended up on sticking with a
maze theme like on island 1, but made the maze the tops of the sunken ruins, as opposed to the area between. This also served to alleviate the need for water mechanics at a sunken ruin environment. This allowed the gameplay to have
a platforming element to it as well, as the player had to avoid falling and being teleported back to the beginning of island 2.
For the third island, I wanted something that would be much more distinct from the first two, and would give the player more room to roam. So for island 3,
The player has nearly unrestricted movement through the fields on either side of a central bottleneck (used to control flow of mandatory tasks), with dirt paths being present through the fields to help guide them on their way.
As a result, island 3 has much more of an open world exploration feel to it, compared to the previous two.
For the fourth island, I went with a mix of all the previous islands. The mountains/large rocks would serve to block some of the players sight, as a mix of islands
1 and 2. However, similar to island 3, the player was given much more choice in how they would traverse the island. A key design change from this diagram, however, was that an additional area was added onto island 4. Previously,
the final battle was planned to be a dialogue cutscene. Partway through development, I was told that the design and narrative teams would instead like to have the final encounter at a physical location, if possible. Conveniently, I had just
enough space next to island four to do this.
