RANA JAHANI
Level Designer & Technical Designer
Abandoned Mill Town | Action-Adventure | 2023
About
Genre: 3rd Person Action-Adventure Quest
Software: Unreal Engine 5, Krita
Project Type: Solo Project
Development Time: 4 Weeks of Blockout and 4 Weeks of Events Scripting (half-time)
Acknowledgement: This is a remake of the “Learning Level Design with Patrick Haslow” course project, with some of my design and modifications.
Imported Packages:
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Materials from Exploring Level Design for Game Development
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Game items (gears, keys, crowbar) from Implementing Level Design with Blueprints
My Role: Level Designer, Technical Game Designer
My Responsibilities:
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Developed level blockouts for a third-person action-adventure quest, prioritizing player engagement in exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving
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Crafted engaging combat spaces by strategically positioning hostile NPCs, covers, and vantage point within the level
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Balanced the level pacing and game rhythm to create a dynamic gameplay experience
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Established a cohesive environmental narrative by thoughtfully placing structures, buildings, and props throughout the level
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Produced modular static mesh proxies as as essential development assets for an iterative level design workflow
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Scripted gameplay events via Level Blueprint framework, character mechanics, and interactions using Unreal Blueprints
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Implemented scripted 3D sounds in the level to provide feedback to the player
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Illustrated digital 2D level layouts using Krita to guide the overall design vision
Pre-Production
1
Setting
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Abandoned milltown
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Nodes and Landmarks: Mill Building (Waterwheel Sawmill), Town Hall, Mansion, Worker Houses, Store, Saloon
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Paths: paths include different elevations to make an interesting exploration experience as well as guiding the player.
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Edges: The town is located in a valley surrounded by mountain range and a river
2
Narrative
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Player is on a quest to seek revenge on bandits who occupied the town.
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The level serves as a story chapter within an overarching game story arc.
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The level conveys narrative moments through environmental storytelling and scripted events.
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Player Experience
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Exploration
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Puzzle solving (Key/Lock mechanic)
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Combat (sniping, close-range combat, and stealth)
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Duration of Play: 10 minutes
Inspiration & References
I gathered reference images on Pinterest boards.
Level Layout
I sketched the 2D top down layout of the level using Krita.
Player Objectives
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Reach and cross the bridge
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Defeat the enemy in the mill building
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Extend the bridge
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Start the mill machinery and bring power to the bridge by finding the missing gear wheel
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Explore the building and find the foreman workshop key where the missing gear is in
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Explore the houses and find a crowbar
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Defeat enemies outside the Town Hall and get into the building
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Defeat enemies inside the Town Hall and retrieve the foreman keys
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Return to the mill building from the back of the Town Hall
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Return to to the foreman workshop to retrieve the missing gear wheel
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Return to the gear machine and restart the power of the mill
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Extend the bridge by interacting with the bridge’s switch
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Cross the river
Level Flow & Gameplay Beats
1. The first gameplay beat is going to introduce things, allowing the player to see the objectives, barriers and edges.
Starting from the edge of the river, as the player walks up the curved path, they find their objective, which is to reach the mansion across the river. The player also has a view of a bridge and a mill building.
a.
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As the player gets closer to the mill building, they see the town’s gate which is locked, the road that is blocked by a tree, and a store to the left.
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The player has the option to explore the store which involves the environmental narrative of a raided place after the bandits took over the town.
2. The second gameplay beat includes exploring the mill building, where the player finds the gear machine, and a closed door to the foreman's office.
3. The third gameplay beat involves encountering an enemy, maybe with stealth combat or a close-range combat.
4. The fourth game beat includes finding the dam bridge’s switch, which needs power from the mill machine.
5. The fifth gameplay beat would be leaving the back of the mill building and trying to get to the road that leads to the top of the hill. At this point the objective is to find the key that opens up the foreman’s office, where the gear wheel is in.
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As the player reaches beat 5, they see the Town Hall building on the hill. It’s a prominent spot in an elevated position and it’s presented as a reachable destination.
6. The sixth beat would be an exploration beat by the player, where the player searches through the Saloon and finds more environmental narratives that tell the story of the town. Players can also explore the abandoned worker houses and find a crowbar.
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The worker houses' second floor gives the player a vantage point where they can have an overview of the hill where the Town Hall is located. They can see the enemies and they can use their sniper rifles to kill the bandits in front of the Town Hall.
7. In the seventh beat, players are headed to the front door of the Town Hall where it’s a hideout for the lieutenant of the bandit leader and they fight their way through there.
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Players can choose to have a close-range combat or use covers to stealth kill the bandits.
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Since the Town Hall’s entrance is closed with barriers players can enter the Town Hall by jumping through the bandit’s gears near one of the Town Hall’s windows.
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When they enter the Town Hall, they have an overview of more enemies inside the Town Hall from the broken windows. From there, they can choose their play style to stealth kill the enemies or have a close-combat encounter.
8. After defeating the bandits in the Town Hall, players discover the keys to the foreman’s office. The player can either take a new route down to the mill building from the back of the Town Hall or use their crowbar to open up the barriers that have locked the Town Hall's entrance and backtrack to the mill building.
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So from here, if the player chooses to go from the back of the Town Hall, they go down the hill, do some navigation challenges, navigate the dangerous stair path back down to the mill building, use their crowbar to open up the back of the Saloon and reach the mill from there.
9. Once the player is in the mill house, they unlock the door to the foreman's office, retrieve the gear wheel, and restore power to the gear machine to restart the power of the mill.
10. Then they can interact with the dam bridge’s switch to extend it and cross the dam bridge.
Gameplay Walkthrough
Blockout Process
Player and Gameplay Metrics
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Before I build the level, I cross-referenced the game metrics associated with the game mechanics, and cross-reference them with architectural scale to come up with something that is believable but also works for gameplay.
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For the architectural scales, I paid attention to:
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Building Story, which is the height of a single story of a building - 4 meters.
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Floor Depth, which is the depth and thickness of the floor between building stories - 1meter.
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Wall Depth or wall thickness - 0.25 meter.
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And I also cross-referenced this with the game metrics.
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Character Width - 0.9 meter
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Character Height - 1.96 meter
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Character Crouch Height - 1.1 meter
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Character Jump Z Distance - 1.4 meter
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Character Jump X Distance - 4 meters
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Using Different Materials
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I used World, Local, and Basic materials to maintain metrics and scale within the level.
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I also used a color coding system to differentiate areas of gameplay. Green indicates a door that can be interacted with, an open door. Red can indicate a locked door, blue can indicate water etc.
Creating a Gym Map with Static Mesh Proxies
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I used proxies as placeholder assets that determines the basic dimensions and identity of level design geometry.
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Using geometry brushes, I created Proxy Meshes of walls, doors, and windows in different scales to create modular developer assets.
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Using proxy meshes helped the iterative process of constructing the level, especially for creating buildings.
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It also helped me to easily maintain scale relationships in the world.
Iterative Process of Building Level Blockouts
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Macro-level Blockout
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Creating Player Paths using primitive shape meshes to establish initial rough bounds and direction of player path. Paths include different elevations to make an interesting exploration experience as well as guiding the player.
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Building the overall shape of Landmarks and Nodes and the basic spatial distance relationships between them: Mill Building (Waterwheel Sawmill), Town Hall, Mansion, Worker Houses, Store, Saloon
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Edges: The town is located in a valley surrounded by mountain range and a river
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Micro-Level Blockout
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Creating the interior of the buildings using Static Mesh Proxies created in the preproduction phase.
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Adding more details to the level
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Level Design Techniques
Framing and Composition based on Player Camera
Occlusion and Revealing
For example, by strategically incorporating occlusion on the second floor, I introduced foreshadowing for the upcoming section of the mill. This involved integrating barred windows that partially obscure the view below, offering players an intriguing preview of elements awaiting discovery in the next area. This deliberate design choice allows players to catch glimpses of crucial elements such as the exit door or patrolling enemies, providing valuable foreshadowing and enabling them to plan out for their next actions.
Interesting Visual Spaces with Curved and Elevated Paths
Guiding Players through Lines, Curves, Lights, and Affordances
Formal architectural elements such as lines, shape, color, texture are combined to make formal compositions in the architectural design, creating pattern, rhythm, symmetry, balance, contrast, proportion, theme, and unity. These formal elements draw players attention to specific elements such as landmarks and guide them towards their goals.
Imagability with Elements of A City
Using the elements of a city like landmarks, nodes, edges, paths, and districts to help the player build a mental image of the town, which help them find their way while navigating the environment.
Puzzle Solving
Making the player feel clever and in control through solving environmental puzzles.
Vantage Points
High elevated points let players to have an overview of the level and foreshadow the next gameplay beats, allowing them to plan their actions.
Player Autonomy
Promoting player autonomy by allowing them to have different play style in combat and different paths for exploration
Audio Feedback with 3D Sounds
Using 3D audio either by adding them directly to the level or by scripting them in Blueprints. Feedback included the sound of roaring water, item pickup, item destruction, interactions, working gears etc.
Events Scripting with Blueprints
I brought the level to life by scripting the level events, player abilities like crouching, and interactions: opening and closing doors, picking up items, key-lock mechanics (key/locked door, Gear Machine/Gear Wheel, Crowbar/Wooden Barriers, Switch/Bridge).
Testing the Key/ Locked Door Mechanism
Testing the Crowbar/Barriers Mechanism
Testing the Gear Machine/Gear Wheel Mechanism
Final Thoughts
The Abandoned Mill Town project provided an invaluable learning experience, allowing me to seamlessly integrate design theories into the creation of playable levels within Unreal Engine. I learned essential techniques in level design practicing with Patrick Haslow's course, and now I feel confident to applying them to my upcoming projects. There's definitely room for improvement, such as incorporating the combat system and UI enhancements, introducing rewards for exploration, and adding more details to the buildings to convey environmental narrative. And I'll continue working on these improvements.
Throughout the process, I gained insight into the workflow of level design, starting from crafting a gym map to the iterative creation of level blockouts and scripting events using blueprints. I'm very excited about the future level design projects and exploring more challenging design problems.