Roguelite Game

[eager garden]

Today begins the journey of me and my team making a smaller Roguelite game (3 Levels). I am given a few references for level design and some guidance with full freedom to get creative and make something interesting. This is a perfect opportunity for me to express my intention in the level design to enhance player feelings and change things during the Blockout phase after playtesting with the team. Our main protagonist character is still under work!

We had some warnings and failures with our Perforce, mostly because of our FAB assets and a glitch with Itch but our admin (Hex) is amazing and took care of this immediately for the team. This project is by no means AAA or indie. Our leader just wants to make something and this is a golden opportunity for me to do level design for this game. We have decided to use Unreal Engine 5.4.4 for this project!
https://youtu.be/7lJNWzMdsNQ

[eager garden]

Day 2: I decided to create and put together miscellaneous assets while my team and I playtest Level A. We will have a total of 3 levels for our Roguelite Game. I used Packed Level Actors and simulated gravity for assets to create a natural-looking PLA. I also like to break PLA to make something new which is one of the coolest features I think in Unreal Engine for Level Designers.

This took a few tries, but it was worth it. Tomorrow I will be putting make-up on the original Blockout using the FAB asset pack we picked out for this game.
https://youtu.be/jsKH3I-6cak

[eager garden]

Day 3 and 4: I finished the entire Level A from Blockout Phase to Make-Up. We will have three separate levels for this game. It was a lot of work but I am proud of finishing this level. After playtesting by me and my team, I changed a few things. We are using the FAB assets pack and I used the Actor Palette plugin to make my life easier when putting things together by following the Blockout as guidance throughout the level and making PLA to manage all the assets neatly. I made the landscape and used my blueprint knowledge and the internet to make the material. I also used Foliage Mode for better control over how I want the vegetation to look!

I took inspiration/reference from the Zelda Series, Dungeons & Dragons Animated Series (1983-1985), Dark Souls Series, Elden Ring, New World: Aeternum and Gothic. Have a great weekend.

Background Music: Ms. Rose
https://youtu.be/eHMZ8gvoIN8

[honest sorrel]

Nice dude, keep it up 👍

[eager garden]

I finished building our Player Hub area today. I did not use blockout for building the Hub, since this is a small place for players to upgrade their weapons via speaking with the Blacksmith and player can also find out more about this world by interacting with our second NPC by the statue. Players can use the teleporter to explore all 3 levels. I am currently doing blockout for Level 2.

I am so glad and lucky to meet all our amazing teammates. Hex made the teleporter, our character and put together all the animation you see in this video, including health and stamina. We also have our own UI/UX designer and a composer/sound designer.

This project is by no means AAA or indie or a game jam. We just want to make something cool and this is my opportunity to create amazing levels for this game and grow more.
https://youtu.be/uo2LVCejvCQ

[eager garden]

Day 6: I am almost done with finishing Level 2 Blockout Phase. We will have a total of three separate levels for this game. You can watch the Level 1 full showcase video from my previous post!

Level 2 is a little bit bigger than Level 1 and players will have the opportunity to find an interesting story/lore about why our hero is on this journey.

I should be able to finish the blockout for Level 2 by tomorrow evening. I need to playtest the level and create an interesting landscape by sculpting and I need to plan the dungeon/mining areas for a flow that makes players feel excited and cautious. It was one of our teammates' (Hex) ideas to have lava on this level and he gave me really cool Lava assets from his FAB and I took the lava idea a few steps further by taking references from games like Elden Ring, Gothic, Demon's Souls, Zelda Series and New World: Aeternum.
https://youtu.be/QbzQK1d3vZQ

[eager garden]

Day 7: I am now finished with the entire Level 2 Blockout Phase. One more level to go to finish the entire Blockout to full design (make-up). You can watch the Level 1 full showcase video from my previous post.

I spent half a day playtesting this level for any potential issues. One of our teammates is currently implementing sounds via FMOD in Unreal Engine. This is my first time seeing FMOD in action and what he has told me so far sounds incredible and a really cool way to have sounds in the game. I will wait until he is finished to showcase some of his work in the upcoming video.

Interesting info about me: I have platinum in all the Dark Souls series, Sekiro, Elden Ring, Elden Ring Nightreign, Demon's Souls and countless hours in the Zelda series, Gothic, Skyrim, Lords of the Fallen, Remnant 2, Jusant, Ghost of Tsushima, Dragon's Dogma series, Lies of P, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War series, New World: Aeterrnum and so many more! My point here is that I know a thing or two when it comes to what players might feel and look at when playing the game for the first time. I don't get to play games much anymore since I am so focused as a Level Designer on making levels that have inspired me.

When I am playtesting levels, I can put on my gamer hat and really get into the zone and having a team to do playtest helps a lot. In a bigger project, I would imagine that there would be a separate department to playtest or even bring in fresh players from outside but with our project we don't have that, so we are using what we have to make this game!
https://youtu.be/rZWCYOQ6S4g

[eager garden]

Day 8,9 and 10 Combined: I finally finished the entire LevelB (Level 2) from Blockout Phase to Make-Up, and I am really proud of it. I have one more level to go to finish the entire Blockout to full design. I used my Blockout as guidance to put all the FAB assets together. I used PLA to manage all my actors neatly and like always, I used the Actor Palette plugin to bring in all the actors to my level. One of our teammates (Hex) implemented the Custom Sky and I added them to the level with his help.

I recycled my old PLA by breaking them and I reused the foliage by changing the texture to make it look like it belonged to this environment. One of the greatest things I've learned during this process was to make new-looking assets by using the same thing and being creative!

I took inspiration/reference from the Zelda Series, Dungeons & Dragons Animated Series (1983-1985), Dark Souls Series, Elden Ring, Demon's Souls, New World: Aeternum and Gothic.

https://youtu.be/RwF9_6lhjsM

[eager garden]

Our team is continually working to make this game together and we cannot wait for you to try it and kill enemies with these cool arrows. I am currently doing the final Level blockout (Level 3) and I wanted to take this time to showcase some of the work of our teammates.

The VFX you see here was put together by Hex from an asset pack and SFX was created by E. Our UI is currently being designed by Fish. I will soon showcase that when it's done and in a couple of days you can check Level 3 entire blockout design.

I came up with the Target Dummy idea for the bow inspired by Remnant 2. I used a random pile of bags, sticks and a crystal from FAB assets to turn it into this design and Hex took this idea and turned it into different colored Target Dummies and even made all kinds of arrows.
https://youtu.be/KLqDyW6B41w

[eager garden]

This is it, the final blockout design for LevelC (Level 3) is complete. I am so proud of the work I have done. There will be a few more things to do, such as generating Overlap Events, Switching Phys Materials for appropriate footstep sounds, more playtesting, making a scene from my PLA to use for main menu background, but these are all mid to low priority. We are using Vikunja to track all our tasks. Huge thanks to Hex for setting it up.

I initially wanted to have some kind of library and castle together for this level, but we couldn’t find any free FAB assets that matched my vision. One of my teammates (Hex) suggested that we do a combo of Level 1 and 2 to make level 3 instead. I really liked his combo suggestion, but I couldn’t let go of the idea of having a library and somehow fit a small castle-like dungeon in the level.

I came up with a simple solution, doing a combo and making a library with a small dungeon-style castle by using all the assets from Level 1 and 2. For the library, I put together all the wood planks, beams, side panels, boxes and whatever I could salvage from all my used assets, and for the dungeon-style castle, I took all the rocks, stones, boulders, and pillars without using any new assets. The library area has a few secret rooms and the player has to find a lever in order to open the door to the main area.

This was a huge challenge for me, but I was able to pull it off with the right amount of focus, time management, tenacity and finesse.

The Level 3 blockout level design had to be made with a combination of primitive shapes from Unreal Engine and polished assets for what I needed.

https://youtu.be/SQ7h1PtoKk0