Super Trendsetter (2023)
Level Design | Game Design
Super Trendsetter (2023)
Level Design | Game Design
Embedded Files
Level Design | Game Design
"The depressed inhabitants of Bodenver are in dire need of some joy when you as an aspiring influencer tries to influence the city for the better good of everyone in this silly, semi-open world, minigame extravaganza!"
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Development Time: 4 Weeks
Team Size: 7 People
Genre: Top-Down, Semi Open-World
My Work
For this project, I got to be the Product Owner and Level Designer. This was incredibly intense. Probably the most intense project I endured at Futuregames, but also very, very rewarding, especially now when I get to look back on what we were able to achieve.
Other than being PO and Level Designer. I also handled AI Design, some Sound Design, a bunch of Set-Dressing as well as my first team being a PM.
LD Process
I knew that I didn't have a lot of time, only four weeks. Still, I was supposed to make a "semi-open world" where we could fit multiple mini-games while also being a Product Owner and PM for a team of 7 people.
Prototyping
Because this began as a prototype, I had a pretty good starting off point. I had already prototyped how the different environments should generally look, and it was just for me to continue on the path I had already laid out.
We knew what the game was going to be. A "silly" game with 13 different mini-games. Where you would walk around, and post on Zwitter to influence people into getting happier. Therefore, I instead could just focus on how to "fulfill" that vision.
I started with making a flowchart where I specify each area the game will have and how they would connect. I then highlighted that information in my Miro board, where I tried to make sure the team could easily interact with it for whatever they needed.
For example, as you can probably see on the Miro, I have made sure each district, has boxes, for locations and interiors, where the Gameplay Designers could easily add which activity should be in which area.
The process on choosing which locations the game would have was, incredibly enjoyable. A lot of the time I looked at the maps of American cities, read the street names and saw what inspiration that would give me. I then started doodling whatever entered my mind. Like this jazz club -->
Information Gathering
When I felt like I had a good idea on what locations we would have I then started to ask myself questions on how these levels would actually look.
So, for Super Trendsetter, I thankfully didn't really have a lot of limitations when it came to the Level Design. I decided that each level wouldn't have "walls" and the backdrop would just be a simple color. This meant I could be very free with where I wanted to place the levels. Since the game was also top-down, it was quite difficult for the players to "abuse" the environment as well.
Here you can see a part of my LDD where I designed the game's Downtown District.
When starting to design a level, I always start off by asking myself questions like "What is your goal with the level?" or "What are the game's mechanics?" and "What makes those mechanics interesting?"
I do this because I sometimes found myself being stuck when starting work on a level. Sitting with an empty paper is never good, and therefore I discovered that it's much easier to respond to questions rather than just coming up with everything with no real method to your thinking.
When I design levels I go through a process, I know what to do and I just do it. Never do I have to sit with an empty paper again.
Level Sketch
After having done pre-work for three districts, with each having around five areas, I then finally went onto creating sketches for each level.
I started with taking the Level Overviews I've made and translating them into sketches. This process began in my notebook:
These are three of the locations as early sketches.
This is how these compare to the final sketches:
To experiment with better ways of creating sketches I decided to use a new software to create the level sketches, namely an architecture software called DreamPlan Home Design Software. Learning this powerful tool helped me out a lot and made it so I could quickly start blocking out the environments.
AND THATS IT! This is all I'll be sharing on my process on creating the game's levels. This was an insanely fun and exciting project where I got to work with a team that I think made me laugh pretty much every single day.
However, I will though leave you with 14 different blocked out environments, if you want to see how they ended up looking:
Enjoy!
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