Early Concepts
To start the process of creating my first 3D game, I thought of my goals for the game. I came up with 3 main goals: for the player to have fun exploring, for the player to find the ruins on the top of a hill, and for the player to find hidden gems to unlock the ending of the level. Keeping this all in mind, I started by creating a rough sketch for my level.
Rough Sketch
Since the goal of the level is to explore and eventually gain everything needed to unlock the door on the top floating platform. My level has many open areas with the purpose of allowing the player to explore freely. There is a medium amount of enemies, and they are mainly stationed where there are collectibles or new areas for the player to explore so there is more of a balance with difficulty and reward. Finally, there is a lot of verticality to my level, creating lots of opportunities for traversing with moving platforms and climbing platforms creating some more challenges for the player.
Feedback Notes:
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Open up multiple paths
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Add a teleporter ??
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Open up the area for exploration more
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Create a clearer buildup and learning of mechanics
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Multiple cave entrances
The main piece of feedback I received was to open up the environment in my level. As we playtested, I mentioned that I wanted my level to be more focused on exploring, which is a big reason for the feedback that I received. This feedback was mainly about the cave area I have. In order to make it more open and exploration-based, my playtesters gave me ideas such as creating another entrance to the caves and including multiple paths in the cave so that it isn’t so linear. Aside from this, I made my own observations about my level, such as that I need to add more puzzle-type areas, like a maze or something more to do with the switches the game kit has. I also realized that in order for the exploration aspect to be more fun, I need to include more collectibles and a better, more drawn-out introduction to the mechanics.
Revised Sketch
The diagram to the left, made in Icograms, is meant to showcase the cave system better. I added the new cave opening outside in the tree area where the player can find it and go straight to the bottom portion of the cave system. I plan on leaving some open holes on the ground where the player can peek into the cave system from the forest, but not quite make it inside the cave until they find either the outside or indoor entrance. I further plan on including a switch that will open up access to the entrances so that the player is encouraged to do more exploring to figure out how to open up the entrances.
The next sketches are similar to what I had in my original sketch, but they further showcase the enemy, collectible, and other mechanics and their placement. In the sketches, I again added the new cave opening outside and highlighted where the player will start. I included another point of view for my level to show the start, since it was not very clear in my original sketch, as I was trying to show the caves. The player will start at the bottom of a hill in a forest, where they can explore, and eventually reach the ruins on the top of the hill or the caves once they get inside. This way, I have cleared up questions my playtesters had due to the limitations of my sketches, and I was able to incorporate their ideas to open up the environment better suited for an exploration-based level.
Whiteboxing
To get started in Unity, I followed the 3D Game Kit tutorial and began my whiteboxing using the ProBuilder objects.
Top POV
For the purpose of the whiteboxing, I only included the surfaces of the caves that the player would actually interact with. This way, we can actually see the path the player would be taking in the caves.
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I also left the back of the ruins open so I could look inside. I added a looping stair so I could make sure to fit the necessary number of stairs.
Whiteboxing Feedback:
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One of the main things I was told was to emphasize the exploration aspect of the level more by including more places to explore.
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Similar to the last piece of feedback, a lot of my playtesters gave me ideas to make the cave area more interesting as well. The main feedback was to create a maze here as well, with more paths for the player to discover.
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As my playtesters traversed through my level and I explained, we couldn’t help but notice that I didn’t have much to say about the third building behind the other bigger buildings, and that it wasn’t really necessary and might just add unnecessary exploration for the player and work for me.
Revised Whiteboxing
For the first piece of feedback, I added more whiteboxing to my forest, representing more trees and random objects to showcase how the finished level would encourage more exploration. I also added more walls inside the building to create a maze-type area and make it less open, so the player is forced to look around more.
For the second piece of feedback, I did my best to incorporate more paths to my caves and included some small dead ends to emphasize the maze feel. I did not include a whole lot more, however, since I wanted to focus more on the building in the level and didn’t think there needed to be so many maze-type areas.
Finally, while it made sense when I was creating my sketches to add more there, I realized that it was unnecessary for now and decided to get rid of it unless I happen to find a need for it later on as I build my finalized level. I did, however, leave a wall and a half wall standing just for decoration purposes to emphasize the ruin's feel more.
Level Dressing
My level was meant to be very exploration-heavy, which is why I wanted to have the player spawn in a forest. In this forest, the player can find different interactables while finding a variety of stonework decorations from the kit. I aimed to use space to clear out a path for the player and create focal points, and use color with red plants and vines to guide the player toward certain directions. Once the player reaches the ruins, it is a change in setting with many more walls and stone decor. The lighting inside the ruins is still a bit off, but my aim is to guide the player throughout it with lighting that catches the eye in specific places and random interesting objects placed throughout the layout of the ruins.
Overview
