Technical Level Designer / Producer
Student Project - 3D Mobile Game
February - June 2020
February - June 2020
Northern Letters is my end of Bachelor mobile game project. With a team of seven we created this 3D management/adventure game playable on Android.
The player takes the role of a musher, leading his sled, delivering packages by preparing his expedition and facing, with his dogs, the unpredictable routes and events of the Far North.
As a Technical Level Designer I was in charge of the setup of all the levels and the tool to facilitate this task. The main challenge was to create a tool that can be easily manipulated by all members of the team, especially in a context of telecommuting with a development pipeline affected by the COVID-19 health crisis. A context I had also to take into account as a producer in the management of a team of seven.
The gameplay is based on the management of the sled (efforts of dogs' rows, items, preparation, etc.) and its direction as it advances like a train on tracks while the player can choose it's next path at the intersections.
Three types of fields challenge three types of dog skills. The level design can then be translated in a simple layout of paths of different types with a start and finish, and can be drawn in 2D from a top-view perspective.
This inspired the main input of the tool that is a simple PSD and its layers. From there the Photoshop file can be exchange regularly between level designers and artists to ensure fast changes in the layout, after playtests sessions for example, or to stay on track with the artistic direction.
The final tool was composed of multiple layers: heightmap, paths (three types), forests, lakes, firecamps (gameplay elements), bushes & grass.
The tool then automatically creates bridges and ramps where needed in addition to gameplay logic elements such as checkpoint and colliders that allow the level to be playable quickly and have multiple iterations accessible in a few brushes.
For the base terrain generation I inspired myself from a previous personal project: Houdini Terrain Pipeline.
Breakdown of the tool available on Artstation
Breakdown available on Artstation
Simple PSD Input
In-Game Result
