Game & Level Designer

The PIT

Level Design Test - 1 week
Position applied: Level Designer

Here I present a test for a Level Designer position at Mercurysteam, that I ended up joining in October 2022. The time to delevop it from start to finish was 7 days.

The objective of the test was to present documentation for a level around 5-10 minutes for an adventure game.

2D platformer single-player game, with several situations to solve by controlling 2 characters, and design two abilities for each one of them. Now I would like to present several extracts of the final document and some explanation about the decisions and process behind it:

Test Overview

The level proposed is located in a factory environment, with tubes and boxes roaming around in every room. It is formed by 3 differentiated spaces:
  • Section 1: The storage tower, where the character A starts, and located in the upper rooms.
  • Section 2:  The boiler rooms, where the character B starts, and located in the bottom part.
  • Section 3: A central room, with two spaces separated vertically, and connected with the two other spaces. Both characters can be controlled.


Final level layout image
(click to open)


Level design GIF process from ideation to final paper design

The level is represented with a dark grey for scenario collision and soft grey for navigable area, and there are different shades of soft grey to represent depth.

The characters

As mentioned before, the player would control 2 characters, both separately in their own situations to solve, or together by swapping the control between them.

To start designing their abilities, I defined how this characters are, emphasizing their differences to try to come up with synergy with their abilities.  With inspiration in movies and games such as The Hunchback Of Notre Dame or Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, the kind of strong guy and agile girl opposition dynamic with the characters conviced me to develop it this way:


Characters themes centered around opposites
(click to open)

GAMEPLAY


Gameplay & Abilities

Now I present basic gameplay considerations and metrics considered before starting the layout design of the level:
  • Both characters walk horizontally. Their movement speed could be similar, but maybe their animations emphasize a difference with slower cycles for the boy and quicker for the girl. Basically the boy has a more ‘sokoban’ like movement approach, while the girl meets a more classic 2D platformer metrics.
  • The girl can jump and redirect herself in the air while gliding mid jump.
  • The boy can surpass a 3m platform by climbing it reaching it edge with his hands.

The two abilities designed for each one of them: 


General view of the characters abilities

More specific definitions of abilities
(click to open)

LEVEL FLOW


General flow

The general layout disposition is decided after these abilities presented, as the character A has to start going up and to the right horizontally, and the character B has to traverse rooms horizontally to then go upwards until they meet in the central room with a more exploratory feeling:


General level navigation flow for each character
(click to open)

The main blockage and most important element in the level is a central smoke column that traverses almost the entirely of the level, from the bottom rooms to the most upper area. It interacts with other assets and the characters, as the girl (character B) is propelled upwards when colliding with it using the glide ability, and the boy gets dizzy when using charge-push ability near it, resulting in his action being interrupted:


(click to open)

Another consideration when deciding the flow was the “Ping-pong” feeling when traversing it, specially in the central rooms:


(click to open)

Interactive assets

Apart from the central smoke column mentioned before, and for better understanding of the level, here it is a list of all the different interactive elements that are present in the level:

  • Platforms
  • Boxes
  • Climbable surfaces
  • On/Off Platforms
  • Wagons
  • Machinery generator
  • Hanger activator
  • Button weight platform
  • Spikes
  • Doors
  • Final door
Detailed function and behaviour explanation of each element:

Interactive assets definitions
(click to open)

LEVEL DESIGN

With all the already presented elements before, the level is sequenced as stated:


Level sequence distribution

There are small interactions to start with each character before presenting a situation to resolve, a central room with escalated complexity and a final room interaction with both characters needed to exit to emphasize the cooperation between the characters that has occurred during the level.

Now I present an detailed explanation of each one of these mentioned sections:

Section 1 - Upper rooms in Storage Tower



General sequence of events in Section 1


Game flow explanation of  Section 1, with Character A
(click to open)

Section 2 - Boiler Rooms at the bottom



General sequence of events in Section 2



Game flow explanation of Section 2, with Character B
(click to open)

Section 3 - Factory Central rooms



General sequence of events in Section 3

Game flow explanation of Section 3, with Character A + Character B
(click to open)

End Room

Game flow explanation of Section 3, with Character A + Character B
(click to open)

Cameras Configuration

The test asked for some explanation of how the cameras could be configurated and set in the level, so I approached it by defining first 3 camera configuration: far, medium and close to the characters. With this in mind, I specified in images the camera limits, the triggers to change cameras, the panning direction, frame sizes, etc.:

Section 1:
Section 2:

Section 3:

Ending room:


Bonus! Other ideas considered...

There are some other ideas that I feel are interesting enough to briefly present here. Some of them are related to the characters abilities, how they can improve or grow in other levels and situations, and other are more environment interaction focused:

(click to open)

Thank you for your time!