OCT // 2020

STEALTH PARKOUR

Level • 2 weeks • Unreal

An action-heavy stealth parkour level where the goal is to take pictures of suspects without getting caught.

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ABOUT THE LEVEL

Co-created in 2 weeks together with Fannie Lorant
Unreal Engine
Assets from Synty's Simple Port and Polygon Pirate Pack
Inspired by Mirror's Edge

CONCEPT

GOALS

A politician has been rumored to strike deals with a local mafia lord. Your mission is to take pictures of the suspects. Double-jump and wallrun your way through a stealthy yet action-packed level without getting caught by the enemy guards.

Full-length playthrough of the level at the bottom of this page.

Improving my level design skills by implementing level design principles such as framing, composition, affordances, beats, and structure.
Work on my scripting skills by implementing player movement, enemy AI, and mission system tied to a narrative.

DESIGN THINKING AND PLAYER GUIDANCE

Click the arrow ">" for examples.

LAYERED COMPOSITIONS

The mission of the level is to take pictures of suspects.
For both aesthetic and design purposes I made the framing for the photos layered.
The foreground helps the player feel sneaky and hidden. The background shows important landmarks.

INTRODUCING THE FIRST GUARD

I wanted the first enemy encounter to feel easy and make the player feel powerful.
The guard is placed behind an elevated boat shack so that the player can see him, but he can't see the player.
The laser scope helps the player understand the guards field of vision.

AFFORDANCES

Just like in Mirror's Edge I used color-coded affordances.
Red is used to guide the player to jump. Yellow is for wallruns.

OPTIONAL PATHS

I placed the covers so that the player would have options in where to hide from the patrolling guard.
The right path is favourable as it gives the player the height advantage.

ENTERING THE SQUARE

I wanted the player to feel safe and hidden when entering the square. That's why you're initially in the shadows.
The entrance is framed so that you can see the next objective. A pickup on the archway.

LEADING THE PLAYER TO THE CHURCH ROOF

The player walks to the highlighted area to take the second picture.
He is then naturally led leftwards behind covers in order to avoid getting spotted.

THERE AND BACK

From the church roof the player is able to make a tricky double-jump to the archway via a stall.
When returning back again after having acquired the wallrun ability the player is immedeatly rewarded.
He can now wallrun the billboard back to the church roof with ease.

PLANNING WHERE TO GO NEXT

Throughout the level we're teaching the player that elevated areas are safe spaces where you can assess the situation.
All entrances to the favela are guarded, but the billboard provides the player with the wallrun option.
Falling isn't deadly yet since wallrunning is new to the player. There are stairs that take you back up to the square again.

THE STREETS ARE DANGEROUS

Again, we lure the player away from the heavily guarded street level.
Inside a courtyard the player can glimpse stairs that take you up to the rooftops.
Another billboard is visible in the far background telling the player where to wallrun next.

VINE FENCES

The vine fences (blue) are there to help the player feel safe and invisible while parkouring between the rooftops.

FLOW

We wanted the player to feel a sense of flow when parkouring between the rooftops.
We achieved this by having the player alternate between jumps, double-jumps, wallruns and drops in random order.

CHASE EVENT

It was important to us that the level climaxed towards the end in some way.
The solution became a scripted event where the guards spot the player.
You're now forced to parkour with skill to quickly get away from the hot area.

VISTA REWARD

After having escaped the player reaches the highest point in the level.
We spawn in a bunch of extra guards here that are running in the direction of the long gone favela.
A way to make the player feel smart. So long suckers!

REUSE OF SPACE

The grand escape is topped off with a thrilling zipline ride back down to the pier.

HOME STRAIGHT

The end of the level. A straight stretch leading to the last wallrunning segment.
The mission has been accomplished and your speedboat is waiting for you behind the cargo ship.

LAYERED COMPOSITIONS

INTRODUCING THE FIRST GUARD

AFFORDANCES

Just like in Mirror's Edge I used color-coded affordances.
Red is used to guide the player to jump. Yellow is for wallruns.

OPTIONAL PATHS

I placed the covers so that the player would have options in where to hide from the patrolling guard.
The right path is favourable as it gives the player the height advantage.

ENTERING THE SQUARE

LEADING THE PLAYER TO THE CHURCH ROOF

The player walks to the highlighted area to take the second picture.
He is then naturally led leftwards behind covers in order to avoid getting spotted.

THERE AND BACK

PLANNING WHERE TO GO NEXT

THE STREETS ARE DANGEROUS

BLUEPRINT SCRIPTING

I scripted almost all of the in-game functionality. Player movement and UI is stored in the player character blueprint.

The photo mode was made using scene capture components and render targets.

The enemy AI is controlled with a behavior tree and switches between patrolling and shooting at the player on-sight.

Double-jump

Wallrun

Photo Mode

Zipline

Patrolling Enemy AI

PLAYER BLUEPRINT

Zoom and drag (right click).

ENEMY AI

Take a look at the level from start to finish.

PLAYTHROUGH

DEC // 2019

TITANFALL 2

Environment • 1 week • Unreal

A map I made, where I tried to improve on the level design of Titanfall 2.

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⬤ Wall-run bits

⬤ Ammo pick-up

Titanfall 2 is one of my favorite FPS games. It is often praised for its amazing level design. That's precisely why I wanted to analyze it to see if there's something I could do to make it even better.

For this project, I set-dressed a small portion of the first level in the game and tweaked its level design. I built the map using free assets from Unreal's Marketplace.

You can click through my suggested iterations in the carousel showreel below.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Click the arrow ">" for examples.

PARALLAX // BEFORE

Layering roots and protruding rocks does make the traverse interesting.
But the low contrast in color and light makes the overall impression feel dull.

PARALLAX // AFTER

By letting in more light into the scene and by showing more sky behind the roots,
the parallax effect gets more noticable and the environment becomes more visually interesting to traverse.

ENTERING THE CANYON // BEFORE

Using light do draw the player forward and out of the shadows does work here to some degree.
But there's no focus point for the player to aim for.

ENTERING THE CANYON // AFTER

By lowering the canyon wall and by adding a landmark in the form of a tree that clearly contrasts against the sky,
the path forward looks much clearer and more interesting.

STRAIGHT STRETCH // BEFORE

Again, some sort of focus point would help in guiding the player.

STRAIGHT STRETCH // AFTER

As the big tree cuts out of the player's field of view, we could shift focus to a more distant tree.
The edge of the canyon points in its direction.

AMMO RACK // BEFORE

Its shape does contrast with the environment. Its color doesn't.

AMMO RACK // AFTER

By making the rack stand out in light and color it becomes more clear that it's a point of interest.

VISTA APPROACH // BEFORE

I like the uphill slant here before the vista, as it makes the player feel that he's ascending toward something great.

VISTA APPROACH // AFTER

But I wish the player was able to catch a glimpse of what's to come.
By hiding the vista, but not entirely, the player become curious and wants to go have a look.

VISTA // BEFORE

In the vista reveal, we only get to see half of the crashed spaceship.

VISTA // AFTER

Why not all of it?