ARGELITE
Argelite is a 3rd person, competitive arena game played by two to four players. It focuses on mobility and freedom of movement, incorporating a grapple mechanic on top of the conventional movement actions. Players are pitted against each other on a vertically-focused map, where the goal is to eliminate each other for points until one reaches the limit and becomes the victor!
Student's Choice Award
Gotland Game Conference 2019
The Jury's Spotlight Award
Gotland Game Conference 2019
CORE LOOP
GAME PILLARS
ROLE
Game & Level Designer
RESPONSIBILITIES:
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Sketched and mapped out main level and structure based on original concept
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Landscaping, vertex painting and decorating of level
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Listed assets and collaborated with artists
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Determined placements of gameplay assets
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Collaborated with the team on the general gameplay design of the project
SCHOOL PROJECT
YEAR
2019
GENRE
Third-person shooter
PLATFORM
PC
TIMEFRAME
Seven weeks
TEAM SIZE
Seven Developers
LEVEL DESIGN
LEVEL OVERVIEW
LEVEL ITERATIONS
In order to get a general understanding of space and size, several levels with various measurements needed to be made to decide on the final proportions. Layouts were made in Unreal Engine, using the landscaping tool.
Through an iterative process from playtesting with the character movement mechanics, the level decreased greatly in size from the first iteration to the final version. Verticality was also tested in several iterations and was greatly changed.
ITERATIONS OF LEVEL LAYOUTS AND THEIR SIZES
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
FIRST ITERATION
SECOND ITERATION
THIRD ITERATION
FINAL ITERATION
Width of Level =
90.000 Units
900 meters
A to B Running =
3 minutes 30 seconds
Width of Level =
34.000 Units
340 meters
A to B Running =
1 minute 10 seconds
Width of Level =
14.000 Units
140 meters
A to B Running =
35 seconds
Width of Level =
9.000 Units
90 meters
A to B Running =
15 seconds
In order to decide on a size, several aspects needed to be taken into consideration:
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Speed of the character
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Distance and speed to travel to spear
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Verticality of level
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Amount of players
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The faster movement speed, the faster the player can traverse horizontally.
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The longer and faster the character can travel to their spear, the faster they can traverse the level horizontally and vertically.
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The higher the verticality, the more space the player need to traverse.
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The more players, the easier to spot an enemy.
FROM 2D SKETCH TO 3D LEVEL
2D SKETCHES
Simultaneously while iterating on level measurements and metrics, I decided to draw
several 2D sketches of potential layouts of the
level in Photoshop.
When sketching, I tried to visualize the:
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Verticality
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Buildings, bridges, and platforms
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Spawn points
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Choke points
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Open spaces
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Potential environmental challenges such as cracks in the ground
I decided on a square shape because of the maximum of four players. Four players, four corners.
Each design was drawn within 5 minutes, in an attempt to challenge myself to continuously brainstorming ideas. In that way I instantly got a good understanding of what I liked and disliked about my designs, and could therefore iterate and improve the next one. All sketches are not shown in this video.
DECIDING ON LAYOUT
Looking at the different designs, I felt positive about many of them. However, I had to think about the level of difficulty we wanted to establish for the player. I liked the designs with various gaps but having too many gaps didn't feel like a good idea. I didn't want the player to feel overwhelmed when playing, needing to think about external challenges too much. Therefore, the map with one gap dividing the level into two pieces felt like a good balance, where the player would have to fight against enemies, but also think about where they would traverse. The gap would force the player to traverse.
HEIGHTS OF VERTICALITY
After choosing the layout, I started creating the basic shape of the level with the landscaping tool. I played around with verticality and decided to have three different heights of elevation in the level. My plan was to incorporate more vertical possibilities later in the development process by placing platforms and other assets in order to facilitate a level with multiple traversable options.
The colors indicates the different levels of elevation in the level.
Green = lowest. Red = highest.
CHOKE POINTS
To facilitate more combat, I made sure to create choke points in several places of the level. Placing out buildings created smaller and narrow pathways where players would share a small area if roaming here, especially on the ground floor.
I also tried to make the elevations narrow. If the players would decide to roam on the higher elevations, players would not be able to avoid crossing each other's paths if being there at the same time.
The picture shows areas that were planned to become choke points. The picture also showcases the placement of buildings and the narrow elevations.
OPEN AREA
I didn’t want the level to become too crowded with buildings and other constructions. Therefore, I made sure to create a rather open space at the center of my level on the ground floor and lower elevation.
I wanted to create an area where many players could be at the same time and battle against each other. My intention was to create an area that was risky to roam, where players failing at traversing would eventually end up. This was an attempt at forcing players to get better at traversing. Being on the lower levels would be risky.
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
VERTICAL POSSIBILITIES
GOAL
Multiple opportunities to traverse vertically
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In order to guarantee that the player could utilize the multifunctional spear, I had to create vertical possibilities.
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Creating higher elevations became an evident part of the map. These points of interest were placed out as buildings, bridges, plateaus, platforms and cliffs.
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My goal was to make sure the player could stand at one position and be able to see several levels of verticality where they could traverse.
CREATING POSSIBILITIES = FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
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The video showcases the multiple ways to traverse a small part of the level.
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The player can effortlessly and freely move around without anything blocking their path.
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Everything traversable is clearly visible to the player.
PLACEMENT OF PICK-UPS
At the end of the development process, the team decided to add two pick-ups: a health pack and a power-up that granted attack and movement speed.
The idea was to facilitate more combat and potential encounters since there was something that could help players survive longer, or help them become a bigger threat to other players. They would need to fight over something, while fighting each other.
HIGH RISK
HIGH REWARD
My general idea was to place the pick-ups at higher elevations, in order to encourage movement on the vertical axis. I decided to place the pick-ups at places that could be hard to reach or traverse, in order to create a challenge for the player.
If the player would decide to acquire one of the pick-ups, they would have to be more precise in their movement. Failing could lead to falling out of the map or losing time from killing opponents. However, gaining the pick-up would be very rewarding. High risk, high reward.