Tunic Corrupted

Week 1

This first week we have been doing more introduction to everyone in the group and assigning roles.

We have been doing scrums and introducing ourselves to each other.

As well as this, we have been coming up with ideas for what we can do for this project. With the brief being to create a "reskinned version of tunic", we have been coming up with ideas that would fit the world Tunic is in, while trying to put our own twist on it.

We came up with the idea to have an ancient Greece theme with a mouse as the protagonist.

We have all had input in what the story/gameplay/art ideas and have fully decided on the ideas

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Week 2

This week has been a little slow for me personally. I have not had a lot of work to do at the moment because we have still been finalising our ideas for the project.

Dan (one of the design leads) has created a backstory/lore for the game, based on the story of the original game.

The art team has been creating some concept art to give to the character artists to create models for our characters/enemies.

These concepts are for our main character/weapons and some of the bosses. These have been sent to the model makers/animators to create some 3d models.

I have been doing some research on how best to do the actual level design for this project. The type of research I have been doing is watching gameplay videos and actually playing the game. This has been good and helped me to see how the level design impacts how the player plays the game.

One area of the level design I really like in Tunic, is the storytelling/puzzles of the level.

Specifically how the player must go through a certain area of a sub-area to either get an item like a sword to destroy something and get to the boss room. Or the player platforming and getting round to another part of a previous area to get to the boss room.

(This is an example of how the player goes through parts of the level to get to different areas of previous areas to progress through the level.)

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Week 3

I have been creating some level layout designs for the corrupt area(s) of the project. I Just want to have a visual representation of my ideas for the level, even if they are subject to change. But as long as my base idea I can see visually, it will really help me and give me a base idea on the layout.

I have done layouts for the overworld of the corrupt area, each of the inside areas, and the boss area for the corrupt area.

These aren't the final designs, things can change in the designs, but these are an initial designs so I will have an easier time when it comes to starting in engine.

Now that I have finished the design layouts and have a reference I can use for the level, I can start making a first blockout in Unreal.

I have made a start, using the brush editor in unreal with consistent units of measurement.

I have however had some personal life things going on during this week so I haven't been able to complete this first blockout. I will get it finished early next week.

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Week 4

I have started work on finishing the initial blockout of the corrupted area this week but have had some issues.

I have started creating more of the level and finishing the blockout, but I have also been talking with the artists and he mechanics team about scaling and I am 95% sure of my scaling. However, Until I get the scale of the main character and enemies I can't be 100%. This has meant the artists cannot finalise the scaling of the assets. Because of this I have requested the model of the main character so I can make quick adjustments to the level I have before I start to create more.

This will help me as well as the artists be able to have the assets created to the right scale with the character.

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Week 5

I have got a lot compete this week, I have finished the initial blockout of the corrupted area.

I have gotten the overworld area complete, as well as the invisible walls.

I have added the maze for the boss area bridge.

I have added an entrance to the boss area.

I have completed the boss arena area.

Everything surprisingly went very smoothly this week and I had no issues at all. I am just waiting for all the art assets and updated character model so I can add them all into the level properly and start building up the level.

Next week is going to be a bit of a struggle for me o do work. I have some pre booked personal things going on, and because of this I will be away from university until the Wednesday. This means my work will be postponed until Wednesday so my overall work for the upcoming week will be less.

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Week 6

So for now this week I haven't been able to work on the project yet, I had some pre booked personal things going on and because of this I will be away from university until the Wednesday. I will be able to in the next days, but for now I have been working on research and keeping contact with the rest of the team.

I have been making sure I know what art assets are finished and where they are, what major things we still need to add in the level, and I have been talking to clayton (the other level designer) about where we think assets should be in the levels.

I will update this when I have been able to work on the project more.

Our aim as a team is to have the base game finished and ready to playtest by next week. My plan for this is to get the corrupted area and boss area both completed with all the art assets added in for it to then be playtested and polished in the upcoming weeks.

Update: So I have created a overview of the corrupted overworld so the level flow is understandable. The boss room is only in the level to help show the flow.

The level overview at the moment

The level design at the moment

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Week 7

This week in the project I have finished the corrupt overworld area with the updated are assets...

...and I have finished the corrupt boss area.

I have tweaked the level designs in the overworld such as the beach...

...and the waterfall area

I feel like these areas are detailed and keep to the theme of a labyrinthian style (the boss is a minotaur so this fits the style), however there is not much area for exploiration. To help with this I have been creating smaller rooms to add in the corrupt overworld that let the player explore more of the level. I have kept these areas in the labyrinthian style still though so they are underground temple type areas.

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Week 8

This week we have had to discuss the scope of the project. Scope creep has been a real issue recently and we have had to cut some things from the project, specifically in the level design.

As a team we have had a discussion and decided that, as of now, we will be focusing on only the first level and boss. This is because the artists underestimated the time needed to go over and polish the levels. For now, we are focusing on finishing level 1 and the boss for level 1.

There may be a possibility in the future with having both levels, but because of the different enemies/boss for level 2, the scope has been toned down.

So, because of this scope creep, I have been working on some dungeon areas to add to level 1. These are smaller than anything in level 2, but they add a bit more exploration to level 1 that isn't just on the surface. It also incorporates one of the puzzles that have been worked on.

I will be adding art assets to the level and filling in empty space. I still need the ladders to work properly but for now the blockout of the first dungeon area is finished.

I also created gameplay diagrams for each of the areas in the first dungeon (in order of the gameplay)

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Week 9

In this week of the project, I have been focusing on the smaller sub areas of the level design. I have continued to work on the dungeon areas.

The first dungeon area is fairly complete, however at the moment I am just waiting for fully complete with models and assets to be put into the project folders so I can add them to the level.

The second dungeon areas were only blockout out, and adding on from this I have added art assets into the areas to add some depth and fill in empty space. I have made sure to not impact the gameplay with these assets, so the player doesn't feel cheated if they die due to being blocked by them. As well as the art assets, I have also added the candles along with some blockout light sources to add some extra depth and help see what it will potentially be like.

Add Picture of candle lighting

I have also changed up the gunge area a bit based on the feedback I have had from playtests.

From the feedback the level didn't seem to loop back as much as it does in tunic so doesn't feel as smooth.

Example of level looping in Tunic

To fix this, I have added the loot room area onto the first area with a bridge. If the player uses the two levers they make the bridges go down and can then either go to the boss room, or they can go back where they came. This adds a bit more replayability as well as the gameplay feeling more seamless, with less transitions to the different areas.

Add pictures of bridges & linked areas

Overall I think this change adds more sense of accomplishment for the player. Once they complete the puzzle they go to the area they can see but cant reach from the entrance of the dungeon. I want to reward them for this. So adding a way for the player to quickly go back and forth from the entrance and exit of the dungeon is a good way to do this.

I also understand as a player that sometimes puzzles or certain areas/aspects of a game can be frustrating to the player and they don't enjoy them as much. With this change the player can skip past the puzzle area each time so they don't have to be reminded of the area if they struggled and didn't enjoy it.

However I DO want the player to enjoy every part of the dungeon areas. I have tried to make the dungeons pretty to look at, as well as not feeling too overwhelming, with the puzzle area itself isn't overcrowded so the player can focus on the puzzle.