So through out my two years of studying game development/design I have found myself really intrigued by “Level Design”. Just the idea of creating these worlds of discovery and mystery, and being the “god” in that I can shape them and design them after my own design seems very “powerful”.
And when we were tasked with designing and creating our own levels for class, I knew this was going to be an assignment I would find very interesting.
The concept/story for my level:
“Where do you go to recover something you lost? Many used to make the pilgrimage to the deserted land of Magna, the land of the lost sounds, to recover something they had lost. Many years have passed since that time, and the great land of Magna has been untouched since.
In this game we follow the story of our main character Isaac, who has lost his voice. Isaac heard about the legends of Magna and the pilgrimages that were made there, and sees this as his only way to ever recover his lost voice.”
Sonitus (Latin for Voice) is an adventure, explorer, puzzle game set in a fantasy world were the player will take control of Isaac on his quest. The game puts the player in a first person perspective where he/she will venture out to the old castle ruins in the land of Magna. Isaac will encounter another lost voice on his journey that will guide him to his own voice (I didn't make the guiding voice system in time sadly).
When I started designing the level layout I wanted to design it in a similar fashion to how the “Bioshock” levels are designed. Multiple paths with different obstacles leading to the same end goal, giving the player a “false sense of freedom”. When I actually started to create the level in Unreal Engine I noticed that the level design didn’t actually feel or worked with the same flow that I had originally intended it to do, so I had to make several changes to the overall style to the level. I decided then that I wanted the game to have a more “Myst” like vibe to it.
The level would be designed in a way that wouldn’t require direct directions to where you would need to go, but the levels layout would guide the player alone. An example of this is how the player can see the castle on the other side of the bridge. The player can’t cross the bridge because it’s raised upwards. The player will then see ropes leading to pinwheels located around the level. The player will then hopefully understand that he/she needs to use the pinwheels to lower the bridge.
Working on this level was tons of fun and fulled my interest for level design even more. I was very pleased with the result over all, even though it was mostly just white boxing, I felt I managed to create general mood that I was looking for.
Also here you will find a link to my playthrough of the level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqCxr9vkPM
If you have any questions or feedback let me know!
