Initial Mock Ups

After researching more into my final year project I have been sketching up some level flow designs. Initially I find my design methods differ to most of my peers, I tend to work very loosely, if at all to my designs, though this heavily depends on the genre. As such, this causes me to deviate from my initial designs and level plans in favor of a better flowing level and visually stimulating environments.

I finally got to jump into the editor as I didn't want to spend too much time researching my project and learning new features to incorporate into my project. My first hurdle was as soon as I started: "What environment do I want to base my project around". my choices are nearly endless, Jungle, Snow, Desert, Space Station, a combination of any of the above and so on. I started to block out a jungle environment, As visually I thought it would work the best, but changed my mind half way through and settled for a space station instead - I feel it will fit to the narrative of the level I had in mind in a better manner. As such, here is a top down view of the "block out stage" I just wanted to get the playable area down before I settle on the camera angle and adding assets/props/triggers/mechanics etc.


The aerial view is just the basis of the environment, the elevated areas are the boundaries for the player to stay within. These will be textured and fully assetted at a later date. Addtionally, to get a better feel for an expansive and immersive environment, I wanted to do a quick prop test. I added a few simple "doodads" into the game, often merging several to make one set piece that keeps in theme with the level:

The walk ways here are the initial level start (Though subject to change) I wanted to get a feel of depth within the levels, and after some small tinkering I feel I'll be able to achieve it on a large scale utilizing the Z axis and creating areas that aren't accessible but still visible to the player.


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