Blog Post 6 - April 29, 2021

Blog Post 5 - April 15, 2021

Sprint 5 is complete and in this sprint, I was able to repopulate the combat-focused map and the warp arrow map with the latest assets. I have also created the terrain for the warp arrow map. For the repopulation, I used the new wall assets to help create a better feel and look for the levels.

Shown above is the combat-focus level that is entirely cleaned up. I was going for more pits, but based on the collider for the player, the pits did nothing at which the player did not fit or could potentially fall into them. So I filled them and the map looks a lot better. Additionally, this map may not be used as intended because the enemies do not really force the player into anything as the player can run through it. Though given right now, the player has no health to affect their decisions.

For the warped arrow map, pictured above, I had an easier time creating this one, besides the previous issues of the colliders and the arrows not always making contact with the warp points.

For creating the terrain on the warp arrow level (Pictured above) it was really helpful that I had created a blocked out level of it so that it was easy to create the height and the space of the level. I wasn't needing to come up with a design because I had already done that with the blocked-out version. Now I am working on converting the terrain to low poly to match the rest of the theme of the game. Still something I am working out on how to do so, but I have a few ideas to try out starting with Substance and Maya.

Blog Post 4 - April 1, 2021

Sprint 4 is coming to an end and in this sprint, the game is beginning to take another form, especially with the animations that were included in this build. In this sprint, I was to repopulate levels with current assets and to also adjust some of them to make them bigger to account for the player’s ability to jump and move around the map. The player’s collider is bigger than 1 unity block, so I had to make some adjustments to some of my levels to allow the player to even pass through certain sections.

The changes that I needed to make that were requested from the Designer were mainly just expanding areas. I seem to have an issue with making large levels and want to make small ones, but after expanding some of the levels I am getting a better idea of how these levels should be built.

I am also coming up with some obstacles for players to come across and must use certain arrows to get past them and to then proceed from thereon. One example of this is. I have knock-able blocks in the way of a warp point and this forces players to utilize different arrows to reach the end of the level.

I am looking forward to the next sprint as we are planning on designing more complex levels for the player to play after getting through the tutorials. As well as hopefully getting to do some terrain, building to bring some more life to the levels and more assets are to come out as well.

Blog Post 3 - Mar. 11, 2021

Sprint 3 has definitely picked up in that assets are now being used. As we are creating blocked-out levels, we are adding assets such as doors, buttons, warp points, moving platforms, checkpoints, and level endpoints. We are also going back through already made blocked-out levels to repopulate them with the assets as well. There has been a lot of communication between the Level Designers and the Programmers. Being that the Programmers are teaching the Level Designers how to use their scripts and set up the assets. Additionally, there have been responses made back to the Programmers about their scripts and how they could be improved to better work on the levels. There has also been a lot of communication with the 3D Artists and what assets are needed and the priority of those assets.

These images above are of my design for the multiple arrows tutorial map. This is focused on having the player utilize all of the available arrows to get to the end of the level. For the moment it is missing the necessary assets for it to be fully functional. The bramble walls, fire sources, and bridges are currently missing across all of the levels. For the moment I am supplementing the bridges with a regular block.

Originally this level was due in sprint 2, but that was after we had gotten to the end of it because I requested more work to be assigned to me. Which I finished in this sprint. The combat tutorial is going to introduce the player to enemies and explore their attacks and the damage that the different arrows can inflict on the enemies. I wanted the player to first see that one path is blocked with a door and then must go to the path that does not block them. Once they reach the end of the path they will find a button that will activate the door that was blocking the other path. This is to force the player to explore the map while also combating the enemies that they are being introduced to.

The above image is of the air burst arrow blocked out map that I created. This is to focus the player on using the air burst arrow and get the player used to it. It is a small map but that reasoning is because I do not want the player to spend a lot of time on it and potentially lose interest. It's a here how this works and how you can potentially use this function in future levels.

This is the first level that I repopulated with the current assets. I had to go back and fix some of the design because the character is wider than one unity block, so I had to increase the spaces so that the player could move through the level.

I am still currently working on other levels to repopulate them with the current assets so that we can continue the progression of the game. I was pretty excited to tell the leads that I needed more tasks to be assigned to me, so I could continue the work. The last two cards that I have are almost finished, but they will be carried into the next sprint.

Blog Post 2 - Feb. 25, 2021

Progress for Guilded Fletching is beginning to really ramp up from all the work that the team is doing. I personally have designed two more maps for the tutorial level, and I am currently developing another tutorial level to give the player a glimpse into the combat with enemy units to fight. Additionally, I have created asset lists for each map to help inform the team what assets are needed for the map. I even put the number on how many times this asset will be used and seen in the level to give it a priority to the art team. All this work has been annotated maps and blocked out levels to give a sense of how the level will be shaped. The current plan is to annotate the maps and then block them out and after we have done that with all the maps we will go back and introduce textures and assets created by our artist team. It is really exciting to see a team take individual roles of something larger to bring it all together.

The newest annotated map (shown above) is for the tutorial level that requires players to use multiple arrows to get around the map and reach the end. I did my best to incorporate what the players will have already experienced in previous tutorial maps to emphasize certain techniques or strategies that the players can do. For example, being able to send arrows through fire to make another source of fire to light another arrow with the lit arrow.

Now for what the blocked-out levels look like (pictured above), we used unity blocks to build the scenes to give a 3D view of what the level looks like in the Unity Engine. Levels are color-coded to represent a height to show the depth and height of the level. Translucent cylinders are used to show the boundaries of the level. Currently, these blocked-out levels do not contain assets until the art team is able to create them, and then they will be introduced into the levels for further testing.

My next task is to annotate a map for the combat tutorial level as mentioned before and then block that level out. For this map, I will be introducing enemies, and I am going to make it easy at first for the player to take out so that the player can see what they will be facing and what the abilities of the enemies are capable of performing so that the player can strategize against the enemies.

Blog Post 1 - Feb. 11, 2021

This is the first big project that I have been a part of. The experience that I have obtained is now being put to use on a large team with the goal to develop a fun and exciting puzzle solver. I am one of the level designers of the team currently tasked with coming up with a map key for my other three tasks to design three maps for the tutorial levels.

The Map Key (Images are shown above) was created to help the level designers and other members of the team to identify aspects of the annotated maps. Tyler is the other level designer and the Map Key was his idea and the way we went about creating the icons for the Map Key was by using Photoshop and sizing the canvas to 30x30 to unify the size of the icons between myself and Tyer.

The first map that I designed was for the warp arrow tutorial level (Pictured Above). The intent was to show off the possible strategies that the player can use the warp arrow for. For the design of the map itself, I wanted the player to travel through various heights and force the player to use the warp arrow to transverse the terrain. I also wanted to reaffirm the possibilities by reusing obstacles from the beginning of the map at the end as well as a few more obstacles to give the player an idea of what they can expect as they progress through the coming levels.

The Air Burst Map (Pictured Above) was another one of my tasks to provide the players with an understanding of how the Air Burst Arrow is used in the game. The obstacles that are presented to the players will force the player to use the Air Burst Arrow to either move or destroy the object, depending on the object which has yet to be decided by the Producer and Designer and then programmed by the programmers.

I am currently working on an annotated map for a level that would require players to use multiple arrows. So this level would have the player utilize different kinds of arrows to pass obstacles. At this current time, the way that arrows work is that there will be only ever two arrows out. So once the player shoots off the third arrow, the first arrow is removed from the game.

My next task is to block out a scene in Unity for the Warp Arrow annotated map that I created so that levels can be tested and adjusted along with the arrow abilities that the rest of the team is working on along with model assets.