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DESIGN
Below are some examples focusing on level and movement design from my past and current work. Some of these projects can be seen in more detail on the projects page!
OH SCRAP! - 3D PLATFORMER DESIGN
Hero Image by
Jo Chen
Oh Scrap! is a 3D Platformer where you play as Scrappy the Beetle, a vigilante trying to roll the biggest ball of crap possible. The game is a 10-week long project with a team of 5, currently in development. Below is our project's design treatment, including moveset infographs!
Application is no longer available.
As the Design Lead, Animator, and Programmer, I have worked to design, implement, and animate a 3D platformer moveset that fits the character, allows for interesting level design with a focus on verticality, and most of all, is fun to chain together in our levels.
Working with the Level Designer, we agreed the moveset should be small yet versatile and emergent-- every move should be able to chain into every other move, some chains creating precision, others creating height and distance. Below are diagrams I created to
predict which common moveset chains might be the most enjoyable and commonly used.
Because I was also rigging and animating, I was able to develop animations alongside the
movement, meaning I could create triggers for movement based off of the
animations and visual cues rather than just set timers-- this created a lot of satisfying
visual feedback and allows the player to know when a move is ending and starting.
While we are currently working on the project, we are working hard to develop and graybox an open 3D platforming "bug-sized junkyard city" level that allows for the player to choose not only the paths to take but how to take them. While we want to design around what we predict players will think is fun, we are also very much designing with the intent of players using this moveset toolbox to cross obstacles in ways we hadn't thought of without breaking the design.
Character Model by Vihaan Kumar
FLAVOR INVADERS - OPEN LEVEL PLATFORMER DESIGN
Flavor Invaders is a creature-collecting first person 3D platformer taking place on a decently large singular alien planet. It was a solo project that I did design, art, and tech for.
From the planning phase, I knew I wanted this to feel more like a sandbox than anything linear. Players will be collecting not just aliens called "Flavorlings," but finding incubators to hatch them and food to level them up before sending them off to help repair the player's spaceship.
This simple goal and modular, geometric/low-poly level design were perfect limitations for me to design and create a large-scale level on my own.
For the layout, I knew I wanted a somewhat linear opening section to have a cutscene and tutorial in, teaching the core gameplay loop by showing the player's ship crashed before
revealing the "ship repaired" UI meter. Then, the player will come across an incubator, before
being given an egg.
For interacting with the environment, I gave the "Micro-Gun" weapon a secondary attack that freezes rather than heating up. This allows you to create temporary ice block platforms that, if used well, can reach most areas. It also allowed me to gate collectibles off with freezable lakes/bodies of water, forcing the player to think.
More about this project than just level design, including a full video playthrough of the game can be seen on this page!
LEVEL GRAYBOXING
Other than the above projects, I have experience grayboxing levels from detailed design documents or just from napkin sketches using Unreal, Unity, and Blender.
For level design, I feel it's always important to design around player movement by knowing the player's toolbox of moves, which ones are fun for the player to use, and designing around that while always providing new and fresh ways to interact with the environment.
Above is one example of a design-focused Graybox project I created using Unity (2024).
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