top of page
Search
James Moran
Aug 17, 20204 min read

Project Blog Post

Updated: Aug 20, 2020

State of the Industry


The industry has seen a massive growth in constructing immersive worlds through the use of level design, 3D environments and interactive experiences. Developers spend hours creating whole worlds through the multiple engines and design tools we have today. From vast worlds to explore in popular Role-Player Games, themed arenas in multiplayer games or atmospheric rooms in horror-drive adventure games.


An article by Gamasutra (Chmielarz, 2014) explores a developer’s ability to generate believable game worlds. The article explores the notion that in achieving an immersive experience, a game must strive for either subtlety or apathy towards the player:


“The crucial thing to design in a videogame is the moment when nothing happens. Is our player still immersed and enchanted when they release control? When the only verb available is the most important one of all: to be.”


A textbook example of this comes from the older title of Half-Life (Valve, 1998) a First-Person Shooter released for the PC following similar releases. Unlike predecessors, each level constructed in a manner that dialogue sequences, NPC interactions and whole events occur alongside the player’s movement throughout the corridors of Black Mesa to portray the disaster happening to everyone and not just the sole protagonist.

Half-Life (Valve, 1998)


These principles above are demonstrated increasingly so in newer titles attributed for having a sense of presence within their chosen world/setting. As technology progresses, developers and designers are able to work together to construct environments with increasingly complexity to construct games that can operate without input from a player.


One recent example of this is the recent title of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, where Ubisoft Quebec was tasked in recreating the Ancient Greek isles including many historical locations and sites that no longer exist in the current day. A Games Development Conference (GDC) from April last year explores the teams work into recreating the world during this historical period.



The conference explores all the various tasks the development took in order to tackle the design goal of capturing a living, breathing version of the Greek Isles. From how the team chose to greybox Athens to aid in level development whilst awaiting art assets to the very process of asset creation. A team member spoke at length for how they strived to achieve the best performance in generating high-fidelity art whilst also using methods that made efficient use of the design tools at-hand.

 

Skills to Work On


Inspired by games during my high school years with Bioshock: Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013) and Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft, 2009), I chose to seek a career in video games development. I have always found a strong lean towards level design, worldbuilding and environment art as core skills I would live to develop alongside the fundamentals of programming and design.


With an initial development of skills in individual asset creation and level design as shown through my previous work on my portfolio- I would highly value the ability to being these skills together into a new project that allows me to develop these skills further under the context of constructing a medium-fidelity level on my own. This will require knowledge of spacing, lighting, scripting in the relevant game engine chosen for any given project.

 

Personal Project & Portfolio Innovation


I plan to work on a small exploration-based level in the Unreal engine. It will consist of a several rooms within an ancient temple where the player moves between rooms to complete a larger puzzle to unlock the final exit room. To utilise the strengths of the Unreal engine the puzzles are planned to be complete by manipulating beams of light between mirrors and objects with each room.


The size and complexity of each room will depend on how well the project manages to work-out due to the given scope of this project. For ease of design, the level will be constructed around a central oasis garden with a pyramid in the centre- with each puzzle lighting up each face of the monument.


The art-style of the project will most likely take the form of a sandy, egyptian temple which, as already pointed out by a few I have discussed the idea with, takes heavy inspiration from movies like the early 2000s The Mummy (Sommers, 1999) or the famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark involving the Map Room (Spielberg, 1981) as shown below:


Ideally, with a fully realised iteration of this project, I can capture this trend in the industry for a sense of presence within the level. As a player moves throughout the temple they are dragged deeper in a sense of wonder and curiosity as they gain access further into the ruins.


In striving towards this particular project, I hope to innovate my portfolio through combining my demonstrated skills in level design and asset creation into a fully developed player experience. I would also personally like to see the Unreal engine added to my list of skills and qualifications as it is a commonly adopted engine across AAA development studios.

 

Key Outcomes:

  • Build and develop my skills in setting up assets, animations and dynamic events that occur in a set gameplay space for the player to explore.

  • Gain experience with the Unreal engine, an industry standard for development, that is often favoured in world-building due to its lighting and physics capabilities.

  • Demonstrate my personal skills as a developer, to complement my previously utilised skills in generating environment assets.

 

References



13 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

bottom of page