Personal Projects

Summer 2018

During my summer break I wanted to continue developing my level design skills so I decided to create levels using an "off the shelf" level editor. I chose Doom's Snapmap editor because it has a lot of prebuilt functionality and I could focus more on the flow and design of the level rather than creating the assets from scratch. I ultimately ended up publishing this map to the community servers for everyone to play.

My goal with this project was to learn how to use a prebuilt editing package that was modular by design but still allowed the level designer to edit interactions with objects and some back end processes. Prior to this project I only had experience with Unity and Gamemaker as creation tools which is good however I know most larger studios use proprietary engines to develop with and as such I wanted to become familiar with using one. 

Overview of my Doom level "Welcome to Hell"

My goal with this level was to create something similar to the level design used in the main campaign of Doom. The objective of the level is to simply survive the encounters and progress to the end of the level. I implemented 2 of the games "lockdown" encounters in this level which force the player to survive and eliminate waves of enemies that increase in difficulty and quantity as the encounter proceeds. Completion of these encounters would spawn keys that will let the player progress through the level, ultimately to the end. I placed supplies at the end of each encounter to equip the player with enough health and ammo to adequately deal with the upcoming encounter.

Interior shot of the first encounter in my Doom level.

I also wanted to add in a few "secrets" that the would reward the player for exploration. I placed two hidden weapons in the level, one requires the player to simply flip a switch and find the newly opened area while the other tasks the player with finding a hidden key and finding the door that it opens in a secret area. I also added in other things such as audio ques and soundtracks that play upon activation of certain triggers. I made the decision to add in these secrets because I know how fun it can be when players find something like this in a game and I wanted that to be an option for those players that actively seek these things in this genre of game.

Overall I really enjoyed learning a new editing software, and being confident enough to publish my level for the community to play was a great feeling. This also gave me great insight to the critical nature of the placement of objects and pickups, especially in a game like Doom where the player is reliant on these items and objects for the majority of the game.

Spring 2018

As the final project in my level design class I was given a brief to create a level based on an alien invasion in the jungle. My thought process behind this level was to make the player feel unfamiliar and estranged to the events taking place around them. I used a night time skybox to create the feel of the atmosphere and tension in the level. I used the terrain editor in Unity to make pathing for the player and made the level open to give the player the freedom to reach the end of the level however they wanted. 

Close up shot of the end of the level

I chose to use this project as a way to push myself to learn and implement something that I had not been taught yet. Through the use of tutorials I was able to learn Unity's particle system and utilize it to give more polish and atmosphere to the level. I also introduced myself to audio sources and used them to add ambient audio to my level which added some depth and personality to the level.

Overview of the level in the Unity editor

I wanted to get as in depth as possible with this project and overall I was extremely happy with the way it came developed. I will definitely be honing the skills I have developed to further my interest in level design.