Orcatopia - Great Punch Man Games Inc

I joined Great Punch Man Games Inc. (GPM) as an associate game designer. In Orcatopia, an open-world game, players can choose any city, town, or village as their starting point, obtain more than 20 types of vocations and their unique skills, and take whatever NPCs they like as teammates to explore the world.

My Duty

As a game designer in this project, I work and support the game from many perspectives, including open world level design, vocation ability design, character/vocation growth curve, in-game item/looting box design, NPCs' value, and main/branch/collecting mission design. This portfolio will focus on the level design part I worked on.

Screenshot of the design document for item and looting box

Top-Down Map

I usually start the level design by drawing out the top-down map for the entire area. Those maps can be used for setting terrain's height, NPC distribution, mission location assigning, trigger events labeling, and players exploring route predicting. It can also assign the textures to the environment, which will help the environment artist build the world.

Top-Down for Labin Village

This village is where we assign the function of one of the player's starting spots and our controlling and special vocation system tutorial area. Mountains mainly surround the village, and applying differential heights in this area can help us emphasize specific places in or near the village.

Top-Down for Dragon Beach

Unlike the Village, which is easier for players to explore, this area requires players to obtain medium to high-level exploring skills since it is a sea cape-like structure. We also included a cave that requires players to use specific skills to enter. This cave will take players to the beach's inner side, which relates to our main story.

Top-Down for Rem Town

The first settlement players will reach when they leave the village and pass through the Dense Forest. There will be more vocations here for players to obtain and more items or materials that are tradable to the players. We also put many main story missions and plots here to indicate how important this town is to the players. This town is the pivot site that supports players in exploring the nearby area.

Top-Down for Dense Forest

We attempt to make this environment slightly stressful for the players by placing maze-like paths and a dim surrounding environment, trying to give them the feeling of being scared and adventuring. We also try to make this place more complicated by assigning three layers: the normal pathway, the road formed by the platforms and standable spots on the wall, cliff, and pillars, and the area at the bottom of the giant pit in the middle of the forest.

Exploring Skills Restriction

When we design levels, especially design levels for large-scale environments or the open world, we need to know the agency of players in the environment: their flexibility and restrictions. In our game, we have a "vocation system" that allows players to apply different skills from different vocations simultaneously. Those skills include exploring skills like double jumping, sliding, rope hooking, climbing, etc.

These skills allow players to explore the world, and those skills will grow stronger when players keep using them (skills level-up system). We need to consider what the players are capable of at different skill levels so it will help us design our game levels, challenges, and missions. What we do is separate the map into various colors, which are assigned based on the requirements of the exploring skills level at that specific area.

For the colors we chose, green is for the places that do not require any skill level, yellow means those places need low to medium skill levels, and red represents high skill levels required. We can use this information to assign our missions on the map based on our prediction of players' character levels (determined by the players' growth curve). With the differentiation of missions based on the difficulty, players might need to revisit those maps at different stages of their adventure. It will be helpful for us to reuse the maps and not treat them as one-time things.

Mission Distribution

Using each color block, we assign every specific area to each mission. The lines between each block in the same mission express the order and progress of the mission's different stages.
We have several types of missions:

Repeatable collecting/hunting missions: These missions lead players to new areas of the map and provide them with the material and coins they need for trading and crafting.
Puzzles: These give players challenges during the adventure and reward them with story information, equipment, or rare materials.
Wanted: Players will face strong enemy units or region bosses, which provide challenges and exciting moments in the game. They also offer rare stuff as players' rewards.
Exploring Skills Challenges: These are designed for players to apply their exploring skills to complete the challenges. Players' skills must reach a certain level to succeed in the challenges.

Region Height Differentiation

We do this analysis because we don't want our regular walking space to consist of flat blocks; we wish it to be more undulating. One reason is that we can make the environment more varied; the other is that it can navigate the players without their notice.

For instance, as we can see in the right picture, Labin Village's resident area is the lowest part of the entire map. Players can always see the lowest area at any location on the map, so they can always return to the village. This also indicates that the area is crucial to the players.

The height differentiation of the Dense Forest

Even though the lowest part of the Dense Forest is a giant pit, which does not allow players with low exploration skills to explore, Players can still navigate through the gradually lowering route height to reach the nearby area of the pit, which is the only path to the other side of the Dense Forest. It will help the players deal with the maze-like environment in the forest.

The height differentiation of the Labin Village

The center of the village is the lowest part of the region, which can give players a hint that if they keep walking down, they can always reach the village.

Players' Route

With all the elements we have so far, now we can predict the players route in those area and assign the crucial events on their route to trigger.

The Crucial Spot & Real Game Scene

So, after all of our work so far, the function of every crucial part on the maps should be settled and used to build the real game world.
The following part introduces the function of each crucial area on the maps and the environment we built based on the current designs.

Labin Village Crucial Locations & Events
(Click to open and close )

LV_1: Starting Valley

This area will trigger the starting animation when players choose this village as their beginner starting location. It leads the players to start the main story mission and introduces the “vocation system” and “vocation mission” to the players.

LV_2: Resident Street

The place where regular residents live and do business. Players can take branch and repeatable missions here or trade with those villagers. The street is the lowest part of the entire area so that players can see the street from any spot in this region; play the function as navigation and also indicate the street is the essential part in this place (with crucial multi-function)

LV_3: Secret House on the Rocky Hill

The place is the most secretive part of this area. Players are usually not allowed to enter it, but they can sneak in (using special skills) and reveal its secrets (then start the branch missions). This area is the only entrance for players to enter area LV_4.

LV_4: Secret Winery

Using the secret tunnel behind the waterfall, players can get into the top secret of this village, the secret winery. Players will have 1 branch detective mission and 1 normal branch mission here, and the decisions that players make during the mission will influence the village's fate.

LV_5: View Spot

A main storyline-related view spot. When players reach this place, it will trigger the animation that brings out the world setting of this game and the next main story mission.

LV_6: Kalain’s Home

This place is the home of one of our essential NPCs, Kalain, which involves introducing the vocation system and some parts of the main story. This place also allows players to take the vocation mission and get the vocation “Cook.”

LV_7: Village Representative’s House
Players will take many main story and branch missions at this place, including the one related to Secret Winery (LV_4).

LV_8: Hill & Grass Field

The targets of repeatable collecting missions mainly exist here. There are also some branch missions here for players to take. When players try to solve those quests, they will gradually move to the top left corner of the area, which will navigate them to the next area.

Dragon Beach Crucial Locations & Events
(Click to open and close )

DB_1: Arena Shape Mountain Top

The unique shape of the terrain indicates that there will be combat-related branches or collecting missions here. To reach this place, players must have median moving skills.

DB_2: The Petrified Wood

The giant wood fossil stands in the middle of this space and is related to 1 branch mission, which lets players craft their weapon, and one collecting mission, which starts a new vocation mission.

DB_3: Region Boss Fight

The relic of an ancient ritual is in the center of 3 pillars. Players have to solve the puzzle on the ritual, put it back into one piece, and then activate it. Players will summon the strong Golem and must find the method to defeat it.

DB_4: Entrance of the Cave

After players defeat the boss, one of the fallen items will lead the players to the entrance of the cave, which is right behind the rock wall. Players need mining skills to break the rock wall and explore the cave.

DB_5, 6, 7: Ancient Cave Relics

Many relics are inside the cave, with ancient symbols and letters on them. Players can collect information from those relics if they already have specific skills from vocation Scholars. Players can leave from the other side of the tunnel if they have mining skills and break certain parts of the relics (at DB_6).

DB_8: Inner Dragon Beach

After players leave the cave (from DB_6), they will reach the secret part of the Dragon Beach and find a giant crystal statue here. If players choose Labin Village as their starting place, this statue will be the first statue they can see and bring out the statues collecting mission series to the players.

**To have a clearer environment view, we hide all the trees in the above pictures (only one picture with trees)**

Dense Forest Crucial Locations & Events
(Click to open and close )

DF_1: Great Godness Fountain

This fountain stays deep inside this area, where players must obtain chopping wood skills (vocation Woodcutter) to cut the obstacle trees and get into. Players can bring their “teammates” (teamed up NPCs) here and “let” NPCs “walk” into the fountain. The great goddess will bring back random NPCs to replace the original ones.

DF_2: Bridge Relics

Some ancient bridge relics remain here, and players can climb onto them quickly to observe the surrounding area. We place some collectibles at certain spots, like on those relics, to encourage players to explore the world.

DF_3: The Fallen Sacred Tree

Here is a giant fallen tree that falls sideways across two peaks. If players already have mediant or higher level movement skills, they can go onto this sacred wood and utilize it as a shortcut to move through this area. The height of the fallen wood is also high enough for players to observe through the forest and navigate in this complicated place.

DF_4: The Giant Pit

The giant pit in the center of the forest separates the entire forest into 2 parts. If players obtain high-level movement skills, they can get down to the pit and do the exploration. We put a boss inside the pit, and this region boss is related to wanted mission players can take at Rem Town.

DF_5: Scatter Relics

The relics scattered in this area are related to some puzzles and branch missions and also serve as landmarks to help players differentiate the other 2 entrances at the top and left on the map.

DF_6: Excalibur…?

When players use their advanced movement skills to cross over the mountain to reach this area, they can find a lake and an island in the center of it. There is a sword on the island, in front of a grave. Players interacting with the sword will trigger a series of missions and get mediant to high-level rewards during the missions.

Rem Town Crucial Locations & Events
(Click to open and close )

RT_1: Secret Lake

The lake has a secret tunnel/dungeon (TBD) inside for players to explore. Providing mediant to high-level rewards to the players. 2 repeatable collecting missions, 1 branch mission, and 1 wanted mission are related to this area. Only the players with median to high-level specific ability skills can reach this place.

RT_2: Farm & Abandoned Field

The two buildings in the lower area (a house and a barn) belong to a wealthy farmer. This farmer is related to the “vocation mission,” which lets players unlock a new vocation, the farmer. After unlocking the vocation, players can take the upper part of the area as their farm and cultivate herbs and food.

RT_3: Town Resident Area

The regular residents’ place in the town usually hides some low to mediant-level treasure boxes for players’ looting. Players can also get some brach missions by interacting with the people here. When players sneaky around in those places, they can hear rumors, news, and information that reveal the hidden missions from the residents.

RT_4: Sweet Home

Players can purchase a house near the river and decorate the interior according to their desires. This house serves as a base for players to relax. Players can also store or exhibit their treasures in their house or create things based on the recipe.

RT_5: Nobles & Town Representatives

This is the place where town representatives and nobles live. Since the people are the core of the power to rule this area, most of the main story missions are related to this place. The missions (main and branch) here provide high-level rewards.

RT_6: Crystal Statue

The iconic landscapes appear in every crucial area in the world. It’s an interactable target that gives players a collectible item for a mission or upgrading their ability (TBD). Related to the main story missions.

RT_7: Town Hall & Garrison

The core power of this town is related to the main story missions. Players can get 3 branch missions here, and it is also the place for players to take all the repeatable missions in this area. Players can get another vocation, “Guardian,” by completing the related “vocation mission” here.

RT_8: Market Place

Where players mainly trade their goods and food. They can also get the materials for their recipe or ask the NPC to build stuff for them. Since the importance of the place, we put it in the middle of the town and made it an even distance from every entrance.

To Be Continued...

This is a very ambitious project, and we still have many terrain, climate, and cultural style elements that we want to try and implement in this game. Our plan still has nearly 20 cities and key scenes waiting for us to design and construct. Participating in each area's level/mission/environment design in such a massive project will be a great challenge for me. Still, at the same time, I am excited about this precious opportunity and experience! We will continue to create this fantasy vast space world, and we hope to bring players an incredibly immersive gaming experience!