A game about self sacrifice, where the player (Phoenix) must give their life to breathe life back into the broken world. It’s a slow-paced environment game, developed in Unreal Engine 5.
Responsibilities: 3rd year solo University project, currently in development. I am responsible for all aspects of visual and audio design, aesthetics and worldbuilding. Including composition and interconnectivity within the level design. I am developing the project in Unreal Engine 5 using blueprints as appropriate. I am documenting and recording the development and research process.
Team Size: 1
Development time: 4 months
Tools: Unreal Engine 5, Soundly, Blueprints
Level Design and Composition
My focus for this project was in the following areas
Design Objectives
Project Details
Flow
Navigation
Episode 1
Episode 2.1
Episode 2.2
Design Objectives
- Level structure and flow is constant and supported by the aesthetic choices
- The game has a cinematic slow pace that feels emotional during play
- The game feels complete and cohesive throughout
Project Details
The player learns through the first level that they start the game with all mechanics available. Each mechanic is linked to an element of life and each time the player resurrects, a mechanic is lost from their resources and placed into the environment.
Mechanics:
Colour – the environment is monochrome, the player in colour. When the Phoenix resurrects, the colour leaves the Phoenix and spreads cross the landscape, leaving the player as a monochrome bird with a voice and flight.
Sound – Throughout the game the phoenix has a shockwave voice that destroys walls and knocks back environmental effects. When the level is complete and the Phoenix resurrects, the Phoenix becomes completely silent and the sound returns to the landscape. The Phoenix is left with flight.
Large structures sited through the environment are working to drain life from the environment. The player needs to fly to these locations and destroy them, they do this by sacrificing themselves and exploding. The closer the Phoenix gets to the structures, environmental effects (such as an increase in wind speed) become more severe impeding the player’s progress.
The levels are divided into areas as “Episodes”. These are chapter type visuals that indicated to the player the level they are on, along with a philosophical statement referring to the upcoming level.
The project will be implemented in Unreal Engine 5. My experience, familiarity and understanding of the Engine will allow me to concentrate on the design and production of the game rather than having to learn the software.
Flow
- I wanted to keep the area of play linear with areas that feel as though it was more open, for example once the player reaches the crossroads they have an option for two routes, this was to give the player agency within the game and provide them with an opportunity to explore themselves.
- Along with this I wanted to ensure that each room that they enter from the crossroads is different not only stylistically but also architecturally. This was done through making the right option at the crossroads elevated and gradually increasing in height to create a divide and difference between the multi layered water section that is on ground level.
- Furthermore, I wanted the final end point of the level to be the first thing that the player sees as they enter the ground level to create a point of interest that the player understands and can return to once they have explored the desired areas.
- With all of this I also wanted the beginning of the game to be really simple to the player to familiarise themselves with the mechanics, sound design and overall structure of the game
- As the initial section of the game was relatively so intuitive design was integral to ensure that the player didn’t get lost. The main method I utilised was by placing torches at an inward angle to draw the players line of sight to the middle of them.
- Along with these as the player flies past each torch they ignite. As the player follows them they get closer to the desired location that they need to go to. This was a suggestion from an industry dev that play-tested the game.
- The obelisk in the image to the right is the central most important part of the game, this is the final object to destroy. However as the player cant destroy it until the others are gone, the way I indicated this to the player is by placing 2 other “orbs” above the obelisk and these same ones above the doors to where the other obelisks are.
- Not only this but if the player misses the orbs on the doors, the same torches from the mountain section are along the entrances to each room. Furthermore, there are also two unique looking statues infront of them drawing the players eye.
Episode 1 – Mountains
This episode consists of the first few sections of the game, tutorialisation and getting familiar with the aesthetics, movement and sound design. The level design consists of a Phoenix Cave and a mountain top section.
- Ensuring that this section felt claustrophobic was essential make the player feel constricted along with simulating the players understanding of the mechanics in this section. By this point the player has limited understanding of where to go and what to do so the level design paralleld this by having the area being concise.
- Not only this but I wanted this section to feel alive this was done through having fire on the rocks themselves along with embers and other phoenix’s flying around the room.
- The main idea with the Mountain Top section was making sure that it felt open as the player has just come out of the narrow cave section so the contrast was necessary to make the player feel awe, the music supported this heavily.
- To complement this I created a fog system that can wrap around objects within the level, this was to emulate cloud coverage over the clouds, this allowed this section to feel more complete and added an element of juice to the level.
Episode 2.1 – Colour
Episode 2 is split into two parts, these are elements of the level design that are intrinsically linked to the players mechanics and visual design. This is where the players loses mechanics and their visual identity, the more the player plays the more the player loses what makes them a phoenix. This was to show the emotional weight of the phoenix on its journey this was paralleled not only in the visuals but also in the level design. This was done through visual design and environment design.
- The main visual distinction in this section was through having the level be grayscale until the player destroys the obelisk and the colour is placed back into the environment but resulting in the Phoenix losing its flame
- This was meant to represent the phoenix losing its distinct visual identity resulting in the phoenix no longer being able to return home as a result. Along with this the music change as the obelisk is destroyed parallels this as the loud orchestral style dwines and is left with just ambience.
- Furthermore, with the level design I made this cave have glowing crystals that when the player flies through the level initially they are just glowing white, but when they fly back through the environment after the obelisk these are now glowing to make sure that the second fly through the same environment feels fresh and new.
Episode 2.2 – Sound
This section utilised sound as a technique to create a feeling of loss through there being no sound during the initial entry of the level after the player has been accustomed to sound throughout the rest of the game
- Throughout the game the player can “Scream” this has an effect on the environment, moves the pillar at the beginning of the game to allow them to progress. In this section there are only two things that produce sound, the phoenix and the obelisk itself. Until the obelisk is destroyed then all the music comes in at once.
- This is to give the opposite effect of the colour section as it begins in almost silence then becomes more orchestral. This decision is because the phoenix losing its scream is a more subtle reference to the phoenix losing a part of itself. Resulting in the focus being on the new interesting environment while having the undertone of sacrifice and loss.
- Complementing all of this I wanted to give this section a distinct identity, this was done through having a relatively open cave with water being not only on the floor but on the ceiling also. To support all of this the inclusion of water falls and jellyfish in the air going both up and down dependent on if they are in the ceiling or floor supported the unique visual identity