Frozen Mine
Made during the classes Level Design 1 05/2021 and Project and Portfolio 2 06/2021
Postmortem
In Project and Portfolio 2: Game Design, or Design 2, we, the students, were tasked with forming teams and bringing over one of our blockmesh levels each that we completed from our previous class, Level Design I, and continue iterating on them by bringing them out of blockmesh and into a launchable state. All the levels had to adhere to a creative vision and rubric given by our professor, as well as use the core gameplay given to us by the professors, which created some problems that had to be solved or worked around within my level. My level, Frozen Mine, was based off coal mines from that I had seen in Wyoming, where my family is from. They appeared to me as dark, cold, and eerie due to cave-ins, so I tried to emulate my feelings about this type of environment, while adhering to the creative vision and rubric of the project.
Restrictions
Level Design 1 Restrictions
Note: SuperGrids Refers to the given static meshes with grid materials used for block meshing in the project​
​​
Adventure Project's Creative Vision:​
-
Everything had to be created to fit the Creative Vision defined by our professor for the Adventure project.
Genre: Adventure
-
This is an “adventure game”. An adventure game has the player assume the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving.
Time Period: Modern-ish
-
Our adventure had to be believable, and feasible in the time period between the 1700s and today.
​​
Location: Earth-like
-
The location had to be Earth-like. It could have been entirely made-up, but it had to be believable that the location could exist.
-
Physics, gravity, and other natural phenomenon had to match Earth.
​​
Other Restrictions:
-
The player had to always be alone. They could not come in contact with any other “beings” during the game. No animals, people, robots, etc.
​​
-
We could not edit the player character in any way, even to add new inputs.
​​​​
-
None of the previously mentioned segments' playable spaces could be larger than 30 x 30 x 30, and none smaller than 10 x 10 x 10.
​​
-
Everything had to be created in scale with the Player Character.
​​
-
The majority of level objects needed to be created with SuperGrids. Geometry Brushes were allowed if more specific static meshes with a strong silhouette were needed, however, the majority of objects had to be created with SuperGrids.
​​
-
Three or more elements in each area needed to be intentionally set up to direct the player towards the next area or end of the current area. These elements also needed to stand out from the rest of the block mesh.
​​
-
We had to restrict the player's vision so they could never see the void.
​​
-
Our levels had to be broken up into five segments: Level Start, Transition 1, Focal Point, Transition 2, and Level End.
​
-
The Level Start had to be viewed at Eye-Level and guide the player towards the transition into the next area.
​​
-
The Focal Point needed to be visible from a Low Angle, and the player would move, jump, cling, and climb their way up to reach the focal point and move on to the next transition.
​​
-
The Level End was allowed to be viewed at Eye-Level or High Angle, depending on what better fit the transition from the previous area.
​
-
The five segments of the level needed to be broken up into two different types of spaces: prospect and refuge. Prospect areas have a danger with the prospect of advancement, while refuge areas are periods of rest and safety.
​
-
The Level Start, the Focal Point, and the Level End needed to be the areas of prospect.
​
-
Transitions 1 and 2 needed to be the areas of refuge.
​
Project and Portfolio 2 Restrictions
-
Perforce had to be used as revision control.
​
-
We had to work with a team to develop a series of levels for a presentation we would record together.
​
-
Team members were not allowed to edit another member's level without their permission.
​
-
The team's levels must be connected.
​​
-
The levels must have super grid (block mesh) materials replaced.
What Went Right
Platforms Everywhere
When I redid the second transition in my level, I borrowed Hayden’s, one of my teammate’s, falling platforms. I thought they would make the section more fun and allow me to open the space up more. I was able to take his code and change the animation of them from level sequence to timelines, allowing me to make new instances and place them anywhere in my level. I was also able to help him squash a bug, where the platforms would not reset upon the player’s death.
Public Revelation
Due to me not being able to use timelines with the melting walls, I needed to quickly find a way to tell the wall’s blueprint to use a different animation, depending on the wall. After some back and forth with Zach, another teammate who was borrowing the melting walls for his level, I realized we could make the reference for the animation itself a public variable and set it individually. I had used public variable extensively for similar problems, but it just had not occurred to me that we could easily do the same with level sequences, since they had seemed so tied to an object.
Constructive Eye Opening
During the project, the way construction script works finally clicked with me. I ended up only using it for small things throughout the level, like my campfire and torch or my glowworms, but now I’m thinking about all of the interesting things that could be done with it.
Anticipation
I am really happy with how the stalactite animation turned out. It is still a bit crude, but for what I had on hand, I think I did a really good job, and I am happy with it. Originally, it fell almost immediately after the explosion, which seemed a bit off, so I offset the stalactite’s start to be a few seconds after the explosion making it appear as though the explosion is really impacting the ice.
Lifting Sendoff
The gondola animation took a long time to get right, but I think it was worth it in the end. It adds a nice set piece to the end of the level and is not too slow that the player feels bored. A nice sendoff before Adventure – Lodge, the pre-given last level of our project.
What Went Wrong
Transition Trouble
The second transition of my level had to be reworked during the project, as the previous version of the section caused the interact function to not always work properly, luckily the level was still mostly in blockmesh, so it was easy to replace that section.
Melting Timelines
In the final build, all the meltable ice walls, use level sequences, but originally, I wanted to use timelines. After many attempts to do so, even after being successful with implementing timelines elsewhere, I was forced abandon timelines and create a level sequence for both walls.
Third Times the Gondola
The Gondola’s level sequence within the level, while now complete, was a large problem during the project. At first the sequence completely crashed unreal when it played. Then, upon a complete rework, it no longer crashed, but would refuse to play the entire animation. Finally, after redoing it a third time, the animation worked as intended.
Water Woes
Water served as a problem for my entire group. We were unable to get our water plug-in to work, so we were forced to improvise. I decided to take the waterfall material, place it on a plane, and stretch it out as much as possible, giving the illusion that water was flowing quickly.
Lack of Kaboom
I knew that the explosion within the stalactite animation was going to give me a hard time when it comes to assets. I was not able to find anything I could use and was forced to improvise with the assets I had on hand.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this project was a great experience, it taught me more about blueprints, and a lot about perforce, the revision control we used. I hit some snags, and had some sleepless nights, but I was able to pull through and work around problems my team and I had so that we could deliver something we were proud of.
Before & After's
