Jungle Brothers
Overview
In this 3rd person platforming level the player is controlling an adventurer whose brother went missing on a jungle expedition. The player is traveling to his brother's last known GPS location in order to find out what happened to him.
Project Details
-
Designed and developed over 2 weeks
-
Created in UE 5.3
-
Level Design, Blockout, Scripting
-
Solo work
-
Assets from Epic Marketplace: Advanced Locomotion System V4, CGMA project source package
Design process
As a first step I've collected reference images of jungles in South-East Asia, so I can get inspiration how I should setup a scene in a jungle. I have focused on the architecture and the natural landmarks, eg. waterfalls and cave entrance, as I wanted those to be my focal points in the level as well.
​
The thick foliage, a river and the sharp hills gave me natural boundaries to work with on the level. With the natural landmarks in mind I created two zones: the village and the cave, both serving a gameplay role:
-
The village would be the place where the player finds his lost brother and need to free him.
-
The cave would be the path to escape from the village inhabitants and get to the level's end.
As I planned a short level (3-5 minute of gameplay), these zones are quite close to each other but a little shifted to each other. I drafted multiple routes between the zones, but in order to include the narrative and interactive elements and the player not to miss them completely, I had to make the player's path linear between the zones.
With the main draft completed, I created the landscape, along with the main paths. Then I did the blockout of the cave and the buildings of the village, where the player interaction and gameplay would happen. Finally I added the foliage and other blocking boulders, fences to contain the space.
​
Personally I prefer to use simple colored materials even during the blockout process and not utilize the grid materials. I use it only where tight precision is needed or to highlight some features to the player, eg. interactable or dangerous environmental element.
Overall layout and level features
The final layout showcases the main paths of the player to discover the village zone, the beat positions during the mission, the platforming sections and some collectibles, partly hidden from the player.
Funneling the player's vision at the start (1)
Elevation and lights to highlight the objective (4)
Directing the player to follow the key (5 -> 6)
Platforms with different tones to guide the player (6,8)
Indicating possible future paths and secrets (7)
AI NPC accompanying the player (8)
Post Mortem
-
In this project my goal was to create a 3-5 minute long, 3rd person platforming-adventure level with semi-linear spaces included. The layout ended up being linear, but that supports a more clear player progression and enhances the narrative beats.
-
The jungle theme was appointed by the course assignment of 'CGMA Level Design for Games'
-
Consistent responses to the player that they are progressing was also my main focus, hence I added mission objective descriptions and dialogues between the player and the NPC.
-
Still there are more aspects which could be improved, although in the given timeframe they were left out:
-
the enemies spawned could have AI scripted to threat the player
-
the end of the cave section could have additional platforming challenges
-
the level could be more semi-linear with added spaces, connecting paths, additional Point Of Interests​​
-