PROJECT OVERVIEW
Ascent is the End of Year project we made with my group. The idea was to create a game slow and contemplative, with some gameplay to keep the player focused and implicated in their adventure.
To explain the progression mechanic, the player start each level at a camp, and end it at the next camp. Everything happend between these 2 camps for every levels.
INTENTIONS / WORKFLOW
Gameplay
Slow Game
Still challenging
One traced path but open Levels
Support exploration
Environment
Calm and Peaceful
Living full Environment
2 "biomes"
Pine Forest (°1
Rocky Path (°2
Workflow
Retake / Iterations
Searching Art & Gameplay references
Setting Metrics & Layout
Starting Landscape
Testing pacing
Starting Level Art 2nd Biome
Merging Heightmaps Landscapes LD & LA
LAYOUT
The player start in the campsite and can speak and interact with the NPC in it.
They can brievly explore and prepare themselves.
The player can also explore the surrounding to find ressources or discover nice views.
The player can either follow the traced path or explore through the wood.
If they talked to the right NPC, the player received a quest and can try to find a plain with lots of butterfly and catch one specific.
Then, they arrive to a river that blocks them, and have to cross it.
After that the player continue and arrives in a more opened space, with a good view, and a bench. They can sit on the bench and find a walkman and play an exclusive music.
Few steps further, a climbable wall blocks them. The wall leads to 2 differents & connected paths. They can explore and try to find ressources or admire the living world around them.
When the player finally get to the final camp, they can interact with the NPC, prepare for the next step and rest to start a new day.
BLOCKOUT
Blockout Overview
Blockout Progression
Those are some screenshots of the blockout in different states. I worked a lot with landscape and landscape paint tool for the blockout to quickly get first visuals of what the level could look like.
Unlit Top view screenshot
Landmark line of sight
Climbable wall blockout
WHAT'S NEXT
1°
I would not have followed the same Workflow, and would not have worked with Landscape to prototype and iterate.
It brought me a lot of new knowledge and skills, but it was clearly not the safest, fastest and easiest way to work on different parts of the map for the LD/LA.
2°
Give more time to design the Forest.
And start by the forest and then build the path in it to have a more credible forest.
The issue here is that I built a path, then I built the woods around it and not the opposite.
3°
And like a lots of projects we have done, I would reduce the size of the map. This level is a little bit too big.
We already had to reduce it, but it wasn't enough.