I have poured my heart and soul towards making this, so everyone knows that I am forced to reckon as a newer Level Designer and I worked so much to finish it. All feedback is welcome. I am proud of myself for overcoming this challenge. My journey continues, and you can check my older posts on other projects here, and I have decided that the best course of action for me to start my career is Level Design and learn new skills as I work with other awesome people that care about games as much as I do. I am ready to take on a challenge, and I am looking forward to growing and learning from others. Do not hesitate to DM me or comment on this post.
Level design is so much fun and the more I do it, the more I want to create a cooler level. I can’t get enough. I still don’t fully understand why this is so satisfying. For some reason, I am able to play out the scenario of what the game might look like and that makes me keep making levels. This burst of energy feels unreal and thanks to all the Epic Game courses, which have helped me a lot to be able to make a level that was in my head, then on paper and to actually make it, has been remarkable.
Here’s the full gameplay of the Level Design for Prisoners of Soluko. I gave myself a challenge to finish this level in 2 days. This was truly an amazing journey. After working on it, I have come to deeply appreciate the level design of all the games I love playing. This Level Design takes inspiration from the Zelda series, Skyrim, Old Pokémon, The Dark Souls series, Tomb Raider series, Gothic and Elden Ring.
I am looking forward to enhancing my skills as a newer Level Designer and I cannot wait to work for a Big Team company so I can learn many other skills from other cool, hard working people in the game industry.
Feel free to download this project and use it however you see fit and no need to give credits. My love for Level Design work is to get a full-time job and learn more. I did my best to organize and put them in folders for anyone to jump in and find them easily. However, I am not a professional Level Designer, so there’s always something to learn and feel free to give me your suggestions. Have a great weekend.
Day 1 level design work is complete and tomorrow I will be working on the player’s escape route.. This game is an action RPG inspired by games like the Zelda Series, Dark Souls Series, Skyrim, Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima and Gothic. The player is able to walk, run, dodge roll and jump. You can use any of my projects/stories however you see fit and there is no need to give credit.
I am looking forward to working/learning with a big team company that is passionate about games as much as I am and eventually reaching my goals.
Day 2 level design is done. I worked to create a path from the PlayerStart area all the way down to NPC Kurt and to the Forest Path. Tomorrow I will be working towards the path to the Temple.
Every day, I am learning something new to fine tune my level design skills while making sure to properly name the folders and managing items in the Editor. I am working on all of my projects as if I am working in a large team and anyone could simply go to that level and understand exactly where things are with added details in the attached document for better communication.
Day 3 was really fun to work on because I finished all four paths that connect to the Temple of Noma along the forest area. I used Procedural Foliage to populate the environment and Blocking Volume to block any potential path that the player is not supposed to go. I also used Landscape mode by hand to make sure I had all the controls I needed to sculpt this fantasy land. I feel that I have more control when I am actually sculpting vs exporting the map and I get to learn/practice new things every time I use Landscape Mode.
See more details (Store, Lore, Game Mechanics, Item Placements and more) in the attached document below!
Day 4 work is complete. Today, it was really cool to work with the Temple Noma creation. I added a small cave that connects to the back side of the temple and created many blockout for the temple. Monday, I will be working path to the first main boss (Dulu The Collector). Level Design work is truly amazing and I enjoy it very much. Every day, I come to a deeper appreciation of the level design of all the games that has inspired me to pursue this as a life career. Have a great weekend.
Day 5 work is complete. Today, I worked on sculpting two big mountains that have a really nice waterfall which forms a lake and leads to a river. This is the path the player will take to fight one of the bosses (Dulu The Collector).
Dulu The Collector is responsible for collecting souls to resurrect Kabok. She is a pure magic force and will only take Blade Enhancement Damage, or she can also be defeated by simply freeing four Cages that are located in this boss room. The player can fight and defeat her with a good old sword fight or simply make her useless by unlocking four cages and Dulu won’t be able to use magic and the player can kill her easily. Dulu uses projectile magic that follows players, and she also banishes anytime player is close to her. The only way to get to her is to anticipate the next appearance, which is followed by a whoosh sound wherever she is going to appear next, and the player gets only a few seconds to hit before she does the blast attack around the area.
Day 6 work is complete. Today, I worked on finishing the bridge that connects one of the bosses, Dulu The Collector to Yuna Dominush. I also mixed dungeon and castle energy into this level. Players can explore and find connected pathways which eventually lead our players to the boss (Yuna Dominush). Tomorrow I will finish Yuna’s level area and start working on connecting the shortcuts that lead the player into Temple of Noma.
Day 7 work is complete. Today, I worked on finishing multiple paths connecting one of the bosses, Dulu The Collector to Yuna Dominush. I want players to feel that they can explore the level and be rewarded for going into places, especially the ones that are challenging for players. The player has to test their jumping skills if they wish to fight Yuna or to get two important items. Players also have a choice to take other paths to collect items that will help them level up before taking on the bosses.
Yuna Dominush is furiously fast and very tall. Her body armor is covered with nails, and she attacks with her daggers and when she spins like a ballerina, her nails attack the player. The best way to kill Yuna is by using Shield Enhancement Defense.
Level design is so much fun and the more I do it, the more I want to create a cooler level. I can’t get enough. I still don’t fully understand why this is so satisfying. For some reason, I am able to play out the scenario of what the game might look like and that makes me keep making levels. This burst of energy feels unreal and thanks to all the Epic Game courses, which have helped me a lot to be able to make a level that was in my head, then on paper and to actually make it, has been remarkable.
Day 8 work is complete. Today, I made paths connecting two bosses in the room. Players can explore and collect items to level up before taking on the bosses or solving puzzles during boss fights to weaken the bosses and kill them easily. Tomorrow I am going to complete a full path build for the main boss aka Shapeshifter Luke.
Mazes, sword fighting and knights have always fascinated my imagination. I was lucky enough to grow up in a rich culture similar to Japan, India, China and some parts of Europe that valued what these days are called Old School, but this has never stopped me from evolving and learning new things. When I was a kid, I used to make mazes, explore natural caves, share/play one console with 10 friends or so and cosplaying my favorite swordfighters and now I am starting to slowly see all the influences coming out during my level design work: story, lore, narrative, game mechanics and other ideas. More than anything, I love building fantasy stuff that is similar to Gothic, Skyrim, Dark Soul Series, Tomb Raider, Elden Ring and most importantly The Zelda series and Dungeons & Dragons animated series (1983–1985). Every day, I come to a deeper appreciation of the level design of all the games I love playing so much.
Today, I worked on completing the path to one of the main bosses (Shapeshifter Luke) who is located deep in Castle Armodol. He is one of the key generals who can help resurrect Kabok. The player has multiple path choices to take before taking on this boss. Players can also explore and collect key items in the game (Soul Seeds and Pauper Seeds) to level up their character.
Shapeshifter Luke Info: He takes the form of Dulu The Collector and Yuna Dominush from previous bosses if the player has faced them already but there are paths within the Castle Armodol where the player can come fight Shapeshifter Luke after fighting Dulu The Collector. Players can simply fight Luke with a shield or sword for a long time because his health bar is very long or find all the control levels to bring the mirrors down, which makes Shapeshifter Luke become self-conscious about himself and this gives the player a chance to do massive damage and then Luke breaks the mirror. Players have to find all the control levels again and bring back the mirrors and eventually kill Shapeshifter Luke.
I absolutely love level design and everyday I feel so much joy and passion working/learning this craft. Have a great weekend and thanks for watching.
Day 10 and I finally did it. I finished the complete level design work for Knight of Armodol in 10 days. During this time, I had to make many changes from the original handdrawn map naturally after playtesting it and just being at the level. Knight of the Armodol is an action rpg game that takes inspiration from games like the Zelda Series, Dungeons & Dragons Animated Series (1983-1985), Dark Souls Series, Skyrim, Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima and Gothic.
Things that I learned during this process:
Do not get hung up on spending too much time making things look nice for the blockout, but don’t slack off making Level Design because you are making the backbone for everything for teams to work on.
Use text, colors, proper names, folder management to communicate with other teams. This will help anyone from the team to change things without having to hound you for questions when you aren’t around or busy with other projects.
Don’t try to do everything on your own to make the level playable like a finished game. There will be teams that are as passionate as you are for them to do what they do best.
Take blockout seriously and playtest it multiple times before moving to the next one.
Prepare to destroy the blockout if necessary when the game level design is asking for something else.
Be open-minded and flexible.
Frustration, mistakes and time crunch are friends, not enemies, to make cool level designs. Trust the process and keep at it.
Do not take feedback from others unless they have play-tested the Level Design or have spent time on the project.
Never lose your passion after failing a project.
Always have an open mind to learn something new to make interesting level design.
Create a level design that makes you feel passionate and excited. Players are not idiots, and they can feel it if someone pours their heart into the game or not.
Remember to feel during level design. This helps to create interesting things out of simple ideas.
I have been very busy with the game jam, and I am learning a lot of new practical things using Version Control to push and pull and working together as a team to make this amazing game we’ve been working on for the jam using Unreal Engine 5.6. I will share the game from jam soon and the Level Design work I have done.
Unreal Engine 5.6 is great and easy to work with. If you are having issues with your CubeGrid Tool, please check your collisions set since the older version came with auto collision. I also use Boolean to cut meshes into the shapes I want and setting collisions for them is not so bad.
Meantime, here’s another Blockout project I am helping a friend. My friend gave me a few references to get an understanding of his Sci-fi game vision, but I am mostly using my creativity and the internet to make the level as interesting as possible for gameplay and visuals. I also used my basic lighting skills to make the level lit.
