Forlorned

The level design was made to replicate a Dark Souls level with backtracking and shortcuts added in to facilitate a smooth experience going through the level.

A mostly level design exercise, the goal was to create an interconnected level for a souls-like action RPG, with a ramp up in difficulty ending in a boss fight at the end.

Level Design

Goals

I wanted the player to navigate a disguised linear path that loops in on itself a few times like in Dark Souls. The main goal here was to design a map with backtracking naturally worked into it that doesn't feel obvious. The main looped area being Old Town which is traversed by the player 3 times, and each time it's through a new path that loops back through the little market plaza, this way it keeps the area feeling fresh, you are not just walking through the same route from the same direction multiple times, and this was the main goal of the design, and what I set out to accomplish when I sat down to make the map.

Details

Verticality

The progression of the map goes from the lowest point, to the highest point. The higher points allow the player to see where theyve been and where they are going

Back Tracking

The central goal was to weave back tracking naturally into the level, I designed it so the Old Town market is passed through three separate times without the backtracking feeling forced. I made it so the Under City tunnels have lots of twists and turns to confuse the players sense of direction, so by the time they emerge from the final elevator, they are surprised to be back in Old Town and then going to the final tower is a quick journey back through the gate.

Anticipation

Near the end, I wanted to create this sense of building anticipation leading up to the boss area, so I made it so the player has to climb a tall staircase to the top of the map, and then fight a gauntlet of enemies to the boss as a final combat challenge

Hidden Linearity

I made it so that the urban areas of the map dont look as linear as they are, while there is a lot of open space, there is only one real way to go through the environment with the backtracking factored into that. I thought it added to the atmosphere and the visual look of the level that it doesnt look as linear as it actually is

Old Town

I imagined Old Town to kind of be grimy and run down. I used ancient Greek stylings when making the grey boxes as I wanted a sort of visual difference between Old Town and Imperial City. Imperial City is based on Roman stylings for thematic purposes. in real life, roman aesthetics were built on Greek aesthetics and so Imperial City was built on top of Old Town. Old Town is supposed to be a run down grimy place in general and contrast against some of the other zones. Old Town acts as sort of the hub area where the player passes through multiple times.

Fortress

The Fortress resembles walls from antiquity to fit the style but just enlarged to a hyperbolic level to create an imposing feel. I wanted the Fortress to tower over Old Town.

Imperial City

Imperial City is cleaner and more put together that Old Town, that way there is a big visual difference between the two zones, in addition Imperial City is based on Roman styling, to clash and contrast with Old Town. Just as Roman aesthetics were built on top of Greek aesthetics, Imperial City is built on top of Old Town. I wanted the two zones to be thematically linked. The player passes through here twice.

Docks

The Docks were the first zone I had in mind when I sat down to make the layout, I had the idea of a player fighting on a stormy dockside with ancient ships in the background. The buildings use a mix of the Greek and Roman style buildings and based the ships on Roman warships. With a large and wide dock, it also provides a good contrast and change of pace from the cramped city before going underground.

Under City

The Under City is the most straight forward and obviously linear, I imagined like a dark sewer type location for this area, in the village area there are scattered about several tents that would be made of rags and look disheveled, everything in the Under City would be dark and grimy, to clash with the upcoming Palace. I thought it would be an interesting concept for another group of people that were below even the grimy squalor of Old Town.

Palace

The Palace is the final zone. The player climbs the main tower from Imperial City and cross the bridge. You go from the very bottom of the map, all the way to the very top. The Palace was based off of Roman temples and is easily the largest structure in the map and towers over everything else as it sits upon a tall plateau. This area would also be the cleanest and nicest looking area compared especially the previous zones where the player emerges from the Under City, going through Old Town and then through Imperial City.

Process

I started by doing a bit of research, I had an idea in my head of a boat on an island with a Greek style city. I took many visual references from God of War 3 when I began drafting. when making the city layouts I looked up how ancient cities were laid out as a starting position. When I had each zone made and drawn out and Old Town and Imperial City had its buildings put down. I then sketched out the route that I wanted the player to take through the environment, including the backtracking I wanted to happen and how the player would loop through Old Town multiple times. Once I had that down, I placed barricades and barriers around to block off certain alleys and set up shortcuts so the player would be guided down the path I wanted them to go.

Once I had my 2D layout done, I opened Unreal and began the whiteboxing phase. The first thing I did was put my layout on a plane to use it as an in engine guide and placed it over my landscape and started sculpting out the landscape until it was where I wanted it. I next placed down simple shapes over where the buildings and objects were supposed to go. The next step was to grey box the buildings the player would enter.

Last step was the final greybox, where I gave the buildings more defined shapes and color coordinated buildings and objects: red being impassible, green being interactable, yellow for important buildings, and blue as set dressing. After this, I went through and added checkpoints and enemy locations. as well as getting everything working.

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