Cave Level

Overview

Platform:

Windows PC

Engine:

Unreal Engine 4

Language:

Unreal script

Tools Used:

Photoshop, Wacom Tablet

Completion:

2018

Team Size:

Design - Samantha Clarke

Animation - Samantha Clarke

Character Models - Samantha Clarke

Level Models - Soul Cave and Infinity Blade: Grass

Lands (both from Epic Games marketplace)

This walking simulator game level was built in Unreal engine 4. Basically, the story is about a wolf who is the main character and a girl who has been trapped down in the cave ruins and they need to work together to get out. The girl walks around on her own and tells the wolf about parts of the history of the ruins and provides some information that is useful to help work out how to activate the puzzles.

Detailed Information

I built this game environment as part of my university dissertation to define the key mechanics in a walking simulator and to explore the balance between environmental storytelling and graphical art. The narration of the game was communicated to the player through the environment and the support character that has random dialogue trigger points. The game level was designed to lead the player through the level in a particular way encouraging them to explore but still not letting them find everything before reaching the puzzle highlighting objects they missed.

The environment was built using pre-existing assets so that I could focus on character creation and design. The beginning section of the level is a lot like a preset soul cave level, I used it as it perfectly leads the player focusing their mind before opening to a much wider expanse where they can explore knowing more about the key things they are looking for.

The character design is important because of it being a non-human character. Although it has been used before they are usually anthropomorphised to look more human; so I needed to make sure the player would be able to relate to the wolf. To help this process the colour schemes for both characters were chosen using colour psychology so that the player will subconsciously start to understand them.

Character Personality Write Up.

Game & Level Design

Features I designed and built for game level:

- Narrative design (story, character, location)

- Level design and prototyping

- Environment storytelling

- Environment puzzle design

- Decoration and lighting

Graphic Design

- Modelling the wolf and girl characters

- Animating the wolf and girl characters

- Colour schemes