[Doc] Level Design - 3rd Person 3D Platformer

I made an exercise about creating a level for a 3rd person 3D Platformer and i'd like to share it since I cannot show what I've been working on since a whole year. This document is aimed for a game developers team.

The screenshots may not be readable for some people or on mobile. You can download the high quality PDF below and use it alongside the explanation if you need !

1/ The Codex -> Elements the Player will encounter during the level

Before creating a level, we must discuss what the game is about. What Gameplay entities will the Player encounter ? What Game mechanics will she use ? What will she have to do with these ? Once your intentions and entities are set, we can start thinking and iterating on challenges. We can start by giving to the team a few key elements that the Player will encounter, a default size and default values for each one.

Interactive Entities - NPCs and Collectibles

Platforming Entities 1/2

Platforming Entities 2/2

For this exercise’s sake, we’ll use the BP_ThirdPersonCharacter Blueprint of Unreal Engine 5, with the default values of the Third Person Example project. Depending on which method is used for Enemy behaviour (using existing Component or custom one), this list can be expanded. Are listed below additional variables for a patrolling enemy, chasing the Avatar once detected :

Enemies attributes

2/ Rational Design -> A take for game flow

In this slide, we can see a few values that are arbitrary defined about several parameters to estimate how the Player may feel and react to each part of the game; or at least how we would like her to feel and react given our intention. We set a few ups and downs in challenges and intensity and we would have checked during playtest sessions if we were correct about our parameter estimations.

Intensity curve - Flow

3/ Blocking intentions & walkthrough

The next slides contains multiples screenshots with intentions and annotations, using the Codex's Gameplay entities and Intensity Curve's notation for level segments. Each one is detailed in the attached PDF.

 After this blocking, discuss it with the team, test it. Multiple steps of interation will come to improve it, gameplay and visually-wise !