About us:
Questmakers is a level design project at ETC that began in January 2024. Our team worked on creating a portfolio-worthy third-person action-adventure game level using Unreal Engine 5, following an industry-standard pipeline. We decided to make it unique and separate it from other portfolio pieces by having innovative mechanics that matched the level’s theme, VFX that set the tone and conveyed the story through the environment in addition to having a fun gameplay experience with a good intensity curve.
These were the members of our team:
- Jinyi Dai – Game Programmer, Game Designer
- Henry Lin – Tech Artist
- Xun Zhang – Tech Artist
- Mike Xu – Enemy AI Programmer
- Polly Yan – Level Designer, Producer
- Rushil Sojitra – Level Designer, Producer
- Louise He – 3D Artist
The Fantasy:
The level is part of a game that is set in a magical fantasy world where the civilizations have been destroyed by corrupted human beings and the Gods of Life and Magic have been killed. The player character, who is a prophesied savior must defeat an evil king and restore balance to the energy cores that power the civilization. In our level, the player is on a side quest to explore a certain civilization that is floating underwater and restore its core. The character has multiple magical abilities that she can use for platforming on floating rocks and solving puzzles as well as ice elemental attacks to fight with enemies.
Our Process:
We followed a very iterative process for developing the level with the central focus being playtesting. We tested builds of our level every week at the playtest nights and gained insights into what was working well, what did not make sense to the players, and what wasn’t following the intended intensity curve.
For adapting this playtesting component in our process, we started our sprint week on Wednesdays so that we would be able to accomplish making a build before Tuesday’s playtest nights and also share those insights as well as the build with our SME to get his feedback and guidance.
What went well:
Our deliverable–
We were able to make a portfolio-worthy level which showcased our team strengths and achieved our goal of portfolio-worthy. We were able to create a believable world with the mechanics, VFX, puzzles, enemies, and level design which amounted to approximately 30 minutes of gameplay content.
We also got to know about the industry pipeline for making such a level during our weekly meetings with our SME and figured out an appropriate scope for the level.
Defining a pipeline early–
We established our working pipeline very early in the semester i.e. before quarters so that when we were still deciding on the fantasy for our level, we already had a golden spike project ready to go which included something from all of our team members apart from setting up the version control pipeline and other technical stuff. So, when we were done deciding our fantasy, we were ready to go into production and start making content for the level.
What could have been better:
Improving pre-production–
We found that during our pre-production, we relied on our team’s strengths and decided to base our game on that instead of creating systems and narrative first. If we put this figuratively, we are building a house. Our pillars are proven sturdy; however, our groundwork sits on uneven floors. We have solid bricks, such as our mechanics, enemies, and VFX, so the house is not going to fall apart or tip over. However, it’s hard for someone to look at it and point out what’s missing. We received feedback during softs that “It doesn’t seem like ONE fantasy.”
If we have the knowledge we have today and start over with this blue-sky prompt, we would establish the bearing walls before considering the shapes of the bricks we use. To build a harmonious world, we would need at least two of these four triangles to have solid backbones we can always rely on.
A better structure like the one below could be the key to building a better fantasy.
Taking an existing narrative –
We found that in creating a fantasy world of our own, we set ourselves up for a very large scope, particularly in terms of narrative design. When we decided that we would create our own world from scratch, there were a lot of extra things we needed to answer for while making the level. And we not only had to answer them, but we also had to make them good enough for the level.
We faced challenges in deciding on the art direction during our production cycle which could have been avoided if we made the level in an existing world either in a game or from other media as we would have known what assets we needed and how to best set the tone of the level to match that of the world.
Defining an arc for the character-
One of the feedbacks from our consultant Heather was that while the level and the world had a narrative and intensity as well as emotional arc, there was not a defined arc for the character which made it difficult for the players to invest in the goal of the level personally.
If we were starting over we would definitely focus on the character arc because not only is it better for the level but it is a necessary part of level design in the industry which we got to learn from our SME when he was talking about the pitching level ideas in a game studio.