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 Fortre...

  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 introduc...