Background and Showcase

The Forgotten Kitsune Valley was my very first jump into level design.

We were tasked in our aptly named Level Design I class, to put together collages of inspiration and design a level. We were given a premade project that included a character who could jump, climb, and open chests. We were also instructed on how to make climbable ledges as they created the system from scratch for the class. Our only restrictions were that it had to be somewhat realistic, so no Star-Wars fantasy or medieval fantasy magic. We were given a creative vision document to follow, but for the most part it left our options open.

Unfortunately, between the time of creation and the time of writing this article, I lost access to the game files… Otherwise I would have included a playable in this post. Thankfully, I have video and pictures to showcase all the work I did!

Here are the pictures I took of my level’s key points.

The following is a video of when the level was still in Blockmesh form. Interesting fact, this level was developed over two classes, and the textures were added in Project and Portfolio II class. In this second class we were tasked with combining our level with four other classmates.

The following video is our teams presentation of our levels after they were all strung together for said second class.

Reflection

Since it was my first dive into level design, I learned quite a bit. Ultimately, my only regret, possibility was that I didn’t have much in the way of mechanics to work with. Because of that lack, I was forced to focus on a mostly linear path. The side paths I did make were more of either a second way to move forward, or just a hidden treasure. Of which, I had quite a few treasures. The thought was that these treasures could be sold elsewhere for travel funds or something similar.

I am proud of all the efforts I put into it, though. The side paths gave me more opportunity to try new things with the mechanic we did have, climbing. I created numerous cliffs to climb and encouraged myself to make as many places climbable as felt realistic. If I didn’t want the player to go there, I had to make it noticeably too high. Too many times in the past have I played a game where I could almost jump onto something. Almost. And it never felt good. So, I wanted to avoid that.

Interestingly, my original plan was a Forgotten Kitsune Island, but I struggle with realistically making points to block the player. Mainly since an island would have tons of opportunities to jump into the water, and we were not allowed to create swimming. Granted, I did not know how to make the player swim anyways. I believe we had the permission to create a death plane, but I also wasn’t aware on how to do that until the Level Design II class a few months later.

We were also restricted in the size of the level. While my level took up all the available space, I still felt too restricted. The temple wound up being a simple tower instead of the actual size I wanted it to be. That is because if I did make it as intended, I would not have any space to roam around the temple. In fact, originally my plan was to have the player climb around the outside of the temple. Effectively flipping between climbing interior and exterior to find a key. But, size restrictions made that impossible.

I suppose at the end of the day, my vision was greater than the restrictions. While I was able to render my vision down to fit the scope, I feel a bit cheated out of the possibility of what it could have been. Of course, I must admit that squeezing down one’s creative vision is going to be a common thing I will face, if only because it is so easy to make ideas and so much more difficult to implement them.

Every once in awhile I get the urge to jump back into Unreal and create the true vision I had for the Forgotten Kitsune Island. At some point, I will. When I’m not fully invested in my current class and balancing having probably too much life events. Especially since now I know how to landscape and I may just get into modeling, too. I would love to be able to create the temple I had envisioned in full glory.

That about wraps up my thoughts. I do not think I’ll ever quite forget this endeavor.