CAGD 270 - Level Design

  4-17-23          Rounding out the second testing run, Verdant Falls is showing both problems and promise. A carry-over from a rushed week of hurried projects and medical examinations, Verdant Falls still suffers from being too short to be considered a complete level. While I was already aware that visuals come last, when I created the prefabs for this level, I was not  expecting my schedule to be absolutely wrecked as it was. As such, I've now learned my lesson and will make sure that any attempt at visuals come last. This is not news to me, I've dealt with this in the past, but my desires to make a shiny product before a feature-complete and well-tested product has been a very bad habit of late.           Despite my awareness of this habit, I still find it hard to shake, hindering the quality of my levels. Before this course in level design, I had worked in Valve's Hammer Editor making multiplayer levels for Team Fortress 2. Here, visuals almost always took a backseat to

  4/11/2023           At long last, our level design journey brings us to the third dimension through the Unity Engine. In Unity 2020.3.38f, our goal was to design and create a rough block-out for a tutorial level introducing the player to the basic movement, tool, and combat mechanics typical of a Ratchet & Clank style platformer. The auxiliary level design tools, game mechanics, and features are provided by the Game Kit Lite asset pack, created in-house by Unity and found on their marketplace. In addition to making a solid introductory level, we've also been tasked with delivering the experience with a look and feel described as "jungle sci-fi".           As life is commonly known to do, quite a few wrenches were flung into my creative process while designing this level. My initial plans involved a spawn area designed after a futuristic jungle resort that's been forgotten in the jungle. Here players would be introduced to the major mechanics at their own pace in

          In our first adventure with Mega Man Maker, we were tasked to make a desert tutorial level. While that level came and went with healthy evolution through its several iterations, it was time to really sink our teeth into some real hard core level design. This time around, our goal was to design a late-game level with a healthy challenge and jungle setting. To keep things fresh, I tried exploring different tropes on the jungle theme. Instead of starting right in the jungle, I decided to spawn the player in the holding bay of a plane / airship. By insisting the player to dive off the platform, I built trust with them and established the vertical flow of the level.           After freefalling from the back of the airship, the player lands on the shoreline of a tropical jungle island. Shooting their way through a wall of scrap metal, our player finds themselves at the foot of an ancient stone temple, though something is off. Dr. Wily's insignia is proudly plastered on the faça