CONTEXT
This is a game I worked on as part of my last year at UQAT. In this team of 22 talented people, I had the pleasure to be the lead game designer and level designer. The game is avalaible on Steam now!
This is the product of two semesters of work. In Fall of 2022, I was working on the prototype for 15 weeks (12h a week). In Winter 2023, I was working on the final product for 8 weeks (36h a week). We used Unreal Engine 5 which lead me to learn many tools inside the software. I meanly work on levels 2 (17:40 on the video) and 3 (26:33 on the video).
Credit Gameplay: Game channel MAZAVS
FALL 2022
BASE IDEA
Helpless is the story of a mother and her son who needs to fix their car to reach their destination. They will need to trust each other to survive in this hostile environment.
We started as a team of four and were given two prompts made by others students. Our prompts were “fixing a broken vehicle” and “a relation between two characters”. We then proceeded to pitch our idea (see the upward paragraph). The player will play as the son since his mother is weakened by an illness. We first planned it as an adventure game but quickly change direction.
GAMEPLAY
Helpless is a narrative experience where you explore a post-apocalyptic world as a 10 years old child. With an isometric view, you have to go from shadow to shadow if you want to survive the heat of the sun.
The first big change was going from an adventure game to a walking simulator. The goal of this change was to focus on the potential of our story. We kept the burning sun since it’s something we don’t see in this type of game and it helps with the pacing between narration and gameplay.
At that time, we thought that having an isometric view was the best option to help with the navigation, but we did change this at a later stage of the project to help with the narration.
LEVEL DESIGN
I first started on character metrics. We then proceed to work on our first level. It was important to scope these levels and think about downtime for the narration.
After the base of our game was complete, it was time to start prototyping. From this point, I was starting to work on the other levels of our game. I had to take into account the scope of the levels (mainly the size of the level and the number of unique assets). I also kept the narration in mind, since the player will need some downtime to read the conversations.
LEVEL 2 – STORE
Storywise, the goal of this level is to find a battery to fix the vehicule and there’s no place like a superstore to find it. The idea behind this level was to have a different pace with an inside area. It was also nice to visit this messy place with empty shelves since we are in a post-apocalytic world. Everyone enjoy this idea for the narative and visual potential.
Some of the content you will see or read in this document might have been changed or canceled since it was for the early stage of the level.
LEVEL 3 – SCRAPYARD
The player goal is similar to the one of level 2, meaning you need to find another part to fix the vehicle. But the thing that made this level unique is the crane mechanic. This mechanic allows the player to move some cars that are in the way of the player with a crane. This level will see a complete rework during the next step of the project since the short deadline didn’t allow us to explore the concept as we wished.
Some of the content you will see or read in this document might have been changed or canceled since it was for the early stage of the level.
WINTER 2023
LEAD ROLE AND CAMERA CHANGE
As the lead level designer, I was overviewing the layout and camera changes in all the levels.
As a level designer, I reworked the inside of the Store and the Scrapyard since we weren’t satisfied with the previous design.
For a while, we were thinking about changing the camera and at the start of this semester we finally had the time to do so. The technical team did an amazing job to create a simple system with many tools that would help us since we, the level designers, were in charge of implementing the cameras.
LEVEL 3 – SCRAPYARD (REWORK)
This level felt a bit too similar to the first one, which is explained by the short deadline we had last semester to make this one. The best way to fix that was to rework the level from the ground. I made a new layout and the first blocking for the cameras. Once the base was solid, I let another level designer polish the camera and the layout of the level. Here are some screenshots and paper design of my work:
New paper design
After the first blocking, I made a 2D sketch using an engine screenshot to plan the locations of my camera’s views and their transitions.
I worked closely with the level artists. I made sure the art didn’t impact negatively the gameplay and made some adjustments according to their feedback and demands.
LEVEL 2 – STORE (REWORK)
We were happy with the state of the parking, but we couldn’t say the same about the inside of the Store. The new camera didn’t feel good with the old layout. I started with a blank canvas to not limited my possibilities but kept in mind that we had to re-use the assets already made for this level. I decide to make the Store a bit bigger, put the entry to the storage at the back (which is more common for this type of store), and redo the inside area so you can explore between the shelves like in a real Store. My goal was to not make something too confusing so the navigation could stay clear. Here are some screenshots and paper design of my work:
New paper design
TAKEAWAYS
My biggest takeaway was definitely the communication in, what is, my biggest team project so far. As a lead, I had to give constructive feedback and specific instructions to the others level designers so they could improve their levels. I also had to get feedback from the other design departments so we could adapt the levels for the narration and other needs. Finally, I also worked with the technical department and the art department so everything would work in the levels and everything looks great without breaking the layout already establish.